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Product Listing Optimization – Part 1: Automatically format your product feed

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Sending product data to different ecommerce channels often means working with different formatting requirements. Product titles, prices, images, and other fields may need to follow a specific structure before they can be published.

In this playbook, you’ll learn how to set up a channel in Plytix and use transformations to automatically format your product data for different destinations, without creating duplicate content or manually editing your products.

What you’ll learn

By the end of this playbook, you’ll know how to format your product data for the channel you work with using transformations so your original content remains unchanged.

This workflow helps you:

  • Reach more channels without rebuilding your catalog
    Adapt the same product data to different channel requirements without maintaining separate versions of your catalog.
  • Spend less time on manual product updates
    Build channel-ready titles, prices, images, and other fields automatically instead of creating separate versions or updating products by hand.
  • Reduce upload rejections
    Avoid formatting mistakes by setting up your transformations once and let Plytix apply them to every product included in the channel whenever the feed is processed.

Step-by-step guide

  1. Create your channel and map the fields with your attributes 
    Choose the channel you want to send your product data to and add the fields you need. You can use one of the readily available feed templates or upload a CSV template to then match them with your Plytix attributes.
  2. Set up your attribute transformations
    If your content requires a specific format, the best option is to create an attribute transformation. These let you create dynamic formulas using your content so it’s structured correctly. You can create transformations to generate titles from existing fields or standardize content, like pricing or measurements.
  3. Format your images

    Use media transformations to resize, rename or format your images according to your channel’s requirements. This lets you prepare the version needed for the feed without changing the original asset stored in Plytix.

  4. Process your channel
    After your fields are mapped and your transformations are configured, process the channel to generate your feed. The transformations are automatically applied to all products included in your channel without changing the original data in your account.

Best practices and resources

Once your channel is set up, these tips will help you get more out of transformations and keep your product data easier to manage across destinations.

Click on any of the tips below for a step-by-step guide.

  • Find the right requirements for your channel

    Different channels have different requirements for product titles, descriptions, images, pricing, and other fields. Find the best practices guide for the channel you’re working with to understand how your product data should be prepared.

  • Create channel-specific views

    Build a saved view with the products and attributes relevant to each channel so your team has a dedicated place to review and prepare content.

  • Optimize the content used in your transformations

    Formula operations are a great tool to standardize the format and structure of your data to match your channel’s requirements. But the content referenced in them is still key in helping your products surface in the right searches when buyers look for specific information. You can use Plytix’s AI and automation tools to quickly enrich the content that your transformations will pull from.

FAQs

Can I use transformations for different channels?
Yes, you can use transformations for any channel in Plytix. where your product data needs to follow specific formatting requirements.
Will transformations change my original product data?
No, transformations are only applied in the feed you add them to, so your original product information remains unchanged in Plytix.
Do I need to configure my transformations for every product?
No, once a transformation is configured for a channel, Plytix automatically applies it to the products included in that channel when the feed is processed.
Do I need to create duplicate attributes for every channel?
Not necessarily, you can use transformations to create channel-specific outputs from your existing product data without manually duplicating and maintaining the content. However, you can create as many custom attributes as you need for different channel fields.
What can I transform in a channel?
You can use transformations to format different types of product data, including text, numbers, and media. The exact transformation you use depends on the requirements of the channel you're preparing your feed for. See all the formula transformations and media formatting you can apply in your channels.

Related playbooks

Once your product data is formatted correctly, you can improve the quality of the content you're sending to your channels.

See what else you can do with Plytix: