Catalog basics

Name should consist of attributes and descriptors that most uniquely identify the product. Examples of useful product name attributes include brand names, model numbers, sizes, and colors.

• Product ID /External ID  consist of alphanumeric characters, hyphens (-), and underscores (_) that most uniquely identify the product (common product identifier).  The product ID is defined within the div tag where the data-bv-show attribute appears on your product page. If your current implementation uses the scout file (bvapi.js), you can set the product ID in the $BV.ui configure call on your product page. In the product feed, you must specify the value of the product ID in ExternalId. 
• Within Bazaarvoice, ExternalId is especially important. Without it, product matching across features cannot occur. Product ID is also used in submission form links (productId) and in the integration code on product display pages (PDPs), and it is used by sku in BV Pixel transactions.

Brand represents the most important data item to provide for each product in the feed. Brands are used for more than product matching; in Bazaarvoice reporting systems, they also help you get the most benefit from your syndication and Connections programs.

In an XML feed, use the household brand name for the product for the brand's <Name> element, rather than the supplier’s or manufacturer’s brand name. This is particularly true for retailers that may carry multiple brands from a single supplier. Products without brands often appear “invisible” with respect to these reporting systems.

Example:
Supplier BrandOne markets the identically-named BrandOne brand bleach. The supplier BrandOne also markets BrandTwo brand charcoal and BrandThree brand salad dressing. In this case, we recommend that both supplier BrandOne and the retailers that carry these products use BrandThree, BrandTwo, and BrandOne as brands for the respective salad dressing, charcoal and cleaning products. It is not recommended that all products use BrandOne in the brand field, even though the company supplies all of the products.

Category defines a category that is represented by products in your feed using the following child elements. You can also use this element to define a category hierarchy.

UPC, EAN, and ISBN are the most commonly used product identifiers (GTINs). The product category you manufacture or sell and your region determine which identifiers are relevant. If more than one value applies to a product item, we recommend providing all relevant values. For example, electronics or consumer packaged goods (CPG) products might be assigned a UPC and an EAN.

Without these common product identifiers, Bazaarvoice cannot match products to vendors or catalogs as quickly, making the likelihood of mismatches higher. Because of poorer product data quality, the confidence level of the matches declines. This lack of confidence forces more manual reviews of the matches, slowing down the process. Due to delays caused by the lack of automated matching tools, newly introduced products will not syndicate immediately. 

The second most useful product identifier for syndication is the manufacturer part number (MPN). Use the MPN in conjunction with the manufacturer’s name to match products accurately and automatically. In your feed, provide MPNs using ManufacturerPartNumber, and make sure each product's Brand uses the name of the manufacturer responsible for the MPN. Your feed can have multiple MPN values for a single product, so provide all MPNs applicable to a product.

Description provides a description of the product.

ImageUrl acts as a very important differentiator in the manual matching process. Provide an image that is accurate and meaningful for identifying the product. The primary reason for including these images is that they will appear on your submission form.

Note: If Ratings & Reviews is deployed on an HTTPS site, you must provide image URLs at an HTTPS location in your product catalog. If you do not, your customers will see a mixed content warning.

The link to the product page on your website, which is specified by ProductPageUrl, enables manual matchers to access the full context of your product. This method represents the least preferred way to match products manually because it is so time consuming. The primary reason for including a PDP URL is that they route SSURLs to the correct product pages.

Bazaarvoice uses a supplier or vendor ID to determine which questions and product reviews to send to the supplier. This data is required by all feature and product integration, though it is required for retailers only for Ratings & Reviews Collect-Distribute and Connections integration.

Use a custom attribute to provide a supplier or vendor ID in the feed by specifying an id="VendorID" attribute for the <Attribute> element. Example:

If you are a retailer using Connections, Bazaarvoice provides two options for suppliers (also referred to as "brands" or "vendors") to use when signing up for Connections Basic and Connections Premium:

• Supplier or vendor ID—Provides a guaranteed mapping to the supplier and avoids confusion for large suppliers, which may supply products in different categories. To provide a supplier or vendor ID, add the VendorID attribute to existing <Attribute> elements of a product feed. This option also proves very useful for private labels that may be supplied by different manufacturers. This is the recommended option.
• Brand name—Provides the brand or vendor name using the <Brand> element. The drawback to using this option is that all vendors that supply products for the specified brand will receive questions about all of the products, including those they do not supply.

After sign-up, Bazaarvoice uses this value to determine which questions and product reviews to send to the supplier.

Multi-category supplier example

Retailer A carries products from Vendor V in three categories: small appliances, televisions, and mobile phones. A different division of the vendor manufactures and markets each product. Retailer A provides Bazaarvoice the vendor ID for each product and then uses the ID for Connections sign-up. Bazaarvoice can now send questions for the small appliances products to only that division of Vendor V. This process makes it easier and faster for Vendor V to respond. Without the supplier or vendor ID, the television and mobile phone divisions would also receive the small appliances questions.

Private label example

Retailer A has a private label called Brand XYZ. This retailer sells packaged food, toiletries, and cleaning supplies under the Brand XYZ name, but each product type has its own vendors. If Retailer A’s product feed contains vendor IDs, Bazaarvoice can determine which questions go to which vendor. If the product feed does not contain vendor IDs, then Bazaarvoice uses only the <Brand> element to determine where to route questions. Without vendor IDs, all vendors for Brand XYZ’s products will receive questions about all Brand XYZ products, including those they do not supply.