Definition
A product feed is a structured file or data stream (XML, CSV, TSV or via API) in which a webshop supplies its products with all relevant attributes to platforms such as Google Merchant Center, Meta, Microsoft, Bol, Amazon and price comparison sites. Each row is a product; each column an attribute: ID, title, description, link, image, price, availability, brand, GTIN, category, colour, size, shipping costs.
The feed is the machine-readable version of your catalogue and therefore the foundation of every product channel outside your own site. What is not in the feed does not exist for those platforms. What is wrong in it — an old price, a product that is sold out but marked 'in stock' — leads to disapprovals, angry customers and eventually suspension. A feed that is updated daily (or in real time on stock changes) is therefore a basic requirement.
Attribute quality determines visibility. Titles are built as brand + product type + distinguishing features, in the order searchers use ('Nike Air Zoom Pegasus 41 running shoe men size 43' instead of 'Pegasus 41'). Descriptions contain the properties people filter on. GTINs connect your product to the right entity in Google's Shopping Graph, which enables comparisons, reviews and AI answers. Missing or incorrect GTINs are the most common reason for limited visibility.
Feeds are usually managed through a feed management tool (Channable, DataFeedWatch, Productsup) or an app in your e-commerce platform (Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento). These let you transform attributes per channel, rewrite titles with rules, exclude products (for example with margin below a threshold) and add supplementary feeds for promotions, local inventory or product reviews.
For SEO and GEO, the feed is increasingly intertwined with your pages: Google compares feed data with the Product schema and visible content on the landing page, and AI answers about products draw on the Shopping Graph built from feeds. Traze keeps product pages, Product schema and feed attributes consistent and offers a free feed tester that shows disapproval reasons and missing attributes in advance.