Additional catalog features

Additional product catalog features

You can perform the following advanced functions to your catalog feed:

Control Active Products

Control the active set of products

Bazaarvoice maintains a status for every brand, category, and product ever provided in a feed file. An active brand, category, or product is one that is available for purchase and review. An inactive brand, category, or product is one that is considered out-of-date, removed from production, and no longer available for purchase.

Inactive brands, categories, and products are excluded from the following:

Ratings-only feeds
SEO
Connections portal

Inactive brands, categories, and products continue to be included in the following:

Display
Syndication
Submission
Standard client feed

When you upload product feed files, Bazaarvoice processes the feeds differently based on whether they are full or incremental:

Full feeds	Incremental feeds
Products, categories, and brands included in the full feed are added to the Bazaarvoice database The status of included products, categories, and brands is marked active (unless the removed="true" attribute is set). The status of products, categories, and brands that are already in the Bazaarvoice database but not in full feed is marked inactive.	Newly added and updated products, categories, and brands in the incremental feed are added to the Bazaarvoice database. The status of included products, categories, and brands is marked active (unless the removed="true" attribute is set). If you cannot provide the removed="true" attribute, Bazaarvoice can enable a feature that infers the products that should be active based on the recency of the catalog data received incrementally. Contact Bazaarvoice regarding this feature. The status of products, categories, and brands that are already in the Bazaarvoice database but not in the incremental feed are not changed (the active status is not updated).

Full feeds

Incremental feeds

Products, categories, and brands included in the full feed are added to the Bazaarvoice database
The status of included products, categories, and brands is marked active (unless the removed="true" attribute is set).
The status of products, categories, and brands that are already in the Bazaarvoice database but not in full feed is marked inactive.

Newly added and updated products, categories, and brands in the incremental feed are added to the Bazaarvoice database.
The status of included products, categories, and brands is marked active (unless the removed="true" attribute is set). If you cannot provide the removed="true" attribute, Bazaarvoice can enable a feature that infers the products that should be active based on the recency of the catalog data received incrementally. Contact Bazaarvoice regarding this feature.
The status of products, categories, and brands that are already in the Bazaarvoice database but not in the incremental feed are not changed (the active status is not updated).

Note: If you have a default Bazaarvoice integration, we automatically filter out and do not display inactive products in Portal. If you have chosen to set up your own custom integration, we display active and inactive products according to your chosen filters.

Filter Catalog Data

Filter catalog data based on custom product attributes

What are custom attributes

Custom attributes are user-defined fields in an XML feed that capture product-specific details beyond the standard schema. They allow you to include unique product data (such as material, fit, or technical specs) tailored to your business needs.
Custom attributes help you track product-specific information, but they do not allow multiple categories in a single feed. For example, you could define a "region" attribute to report on hotels in a region of the country. Or, you could define a "department" attribute to track how products from various departments are being received by your customers.

Filter data by custom attributes

To filter your product feed by custom product attributes, you must add them to your feed configuration. This lets you filter data based on attributes in the content dashboards and reports in Portal.

Complete these steps to add a custom product attribute to your implementation and then enable custom product attributes in Portal:

Include custom product attributes in the feed by adding the <Attributes> block to the <Products> element. Each <Attribute> element in the <Attributes> block identifies a custom attribute. Here is an example of three custom attributes:

Copy Code

XML

<Products>
    <Product>
        ...
        <Attributes>
            <Attribute id="CHANNEL_VISIBILITY">
                <Value>Any</Value>
            </Attribute>
            <Attribute id="SAP_STATUS">
                <Value>L</Value>
            </Attribute>
            <Attribute id="BUYING_NUMBER">
                <Value>Not_Available</Value>
            </Attribute>
        </Attributes>
    </Product>
</Products>

Sign in to the Bazaarvoice Portal.

Note: You can create attributes on your production server, but you may want to test and preview this on the staging server first.

From the upper-right corner, select the settings icon .
Select Ratings & Reviews.
Under Implementations, select Edit next to the implementation you want to configure.

Note: You can't enable custom product attributes in individual deployment zones. If you haven't enabled them in the Main Site deployment zone, they won't display in Portal.
From the menu on the left side of the page, select Technical Setup under Getting Started.
Select the Product Catalog tab.
In the Feed Attributes section, type an attribute name in the Custom Product Attributes field and then select Add. The attribute name must match the id attribute of the <Attribute> element in the product feed. Repeat this step for every attribute you want to add.
This example shows attributes that match the IDs in the previous XML example:
You can use custom product attributes to filter content in Portal reports, dashboards, and other views.

Automated catalog cleanup

Starting October 30, 2025, Bazaarvoice automatically cleans up product catalogs by deleting inactive data. This cleanup runs on a regular basis, continuously deleting inactive and unused product data, which requires no action from you.

Benefits

This cleanup keeps your catalogs and reports accurate by only showing active and relevant data. Deleting outdated or inactive product data helps:

Improve the accuracy of review coverage metrics.
Reduce system and reporting bloat.
Optimize catalog performance and search speed.
Maintain a cleaner dataset for better insights and decision-making.

Criteria for data deletion

The automated cleanup deletes product data when it meets all of the following criteria:

Is marked as Inactive in the product catalog
Has not been ingested or detected by Bazaarvoice within the past 12 months
Contains no native UGC (ratings, reviews, questions, or published Vibe content) of any status
Contains no approved Network or Family UGC (ratings, reviews, questions, or published Vibe content)

Note: Data that meets all these criteria is deleted starting October 30, 2025. As a result, total product counts in reports and the Conversations API may decrease.

Continued cleanup process

The cleanup process is an ongoing activity that runs on a regular basis. After the initial cycle, the system automatically deletes any product that becomes inactive and meets the data deletion criteria.

Note: For questions or assistance in reviewing inactive products, contact your Customer Success Manager (CSM) or Bazaarvoice Support.

Common questions on catalog cleanup process

Will the data be permanently deleted after the cleanup?

Yes. Once deleted, tha data cannot be recovered.

Can I opt out of this cleanup process?

No. This is a mandatory process.

What do you mean by 'ingested' or 'detected by' Bazaarvoice?

Product ingestion is defined as the registration or re-registration of a product in the Bazaarvoice catalog database. This event updates the product's last_seen timestamp, regardless of whether any associated data has been modified.The last_seen timestamp is a critical component for managing catalog health, as it resets a 12-month countdown for automated cleanup.
The timestamp is updated whenever a product is identified through one of the following data transfer methods:

Feed files: The product is included in a data feed file uploaded by the client to the SFTP infrastructure.
Dynamic Catalog Collection (DCC): The product's data is captured through pixel events that fire on the client's Product Display Pages (PDPs).
Bazaarvoice Portal (Product Catalog app): A client user manually views, edits, adds, or uploads the product's data via the Manage Products page of the Bazaarvoice Portal.

If a product is processed by any of these methods, its last_seen date is updated, and it will not meet the 12-month inactivity criterion for the automated catalog cleanup process.The last_seen attribute tracks system awareness of a product, while the last_updated attribute specifically tracks modifications to a product's data

Is any development work required on our end for this cleanup?

No. This is an automated process fully managed by Bazaarvoice.

Is this cleanup a one-time activity or an ongoing process?

This is an ongoing activity that runs on a regular basis. In the future, any product data that meets the data deletion criteria will be deleted automatically.