Product feeds

A feed is a file listing products. CIQRA uses feeds in both directions, and it is worth being clear which one you are dealing with, because they fail in opposite ways.

• Importing brings products in — from a supplier’s XML feed or a bulk CSV. A bad import writes wrong data into your catalogue.
• Exporting publishes your catalogue out — as a Google Shopping or Facebook product feed, served from a secure public URL. A bad export shows wrong data to shoppers who have not reached your store yet.

Importing productsPull products into your catalogue from a supplier XML feed or a bulk CSV upload.

Exporting product feedsPublish your catalogue as a Google Shopping or Facebook feed on a secure public URL.

Google product categoriesMap your categories to Google's taxonomy so Shopping and Facebook feeds get approved.

The one that catches people out

A Shopping feed is rejected for reasons that have nothing to do with your store working. Google checks the feed against its own taxonomy, so a catalogue that looks perfect on your storefront can still be disapproved because its categories do not map to categories Google recognises. That is why category mapping is a separate screen rather than a field buried in the export: it is a different job, done once, and it unblocks every feed afterwards.

What this page does not say

• It does not give click-paths. These screens have no verified screenshot in this help centre, and we do not print steps we have not checked against the admin as it is today.
• It does not list Google’s or Facebook’s own feed requirements. Those are their rules and they change on their schedule; their documentation is the authority, not ours.
• It does not cover marketing pixels or conversion tracking. A product feed tells a channel what you sell; a pixel tells it what happened. Those live under Marketing.