Product catalog data

For a brand to recognize optimal value from the Bazaarvoice Network, it must provide data about its product catalog to Bazaarvoice. This includes data about the brand and the products the brand offers.

Providing a complete view of the brand’s product catalog is critical for success. Think of the product catalog as a translator between retailers and brands. Retailers and brands often use different identifiers and metadata to describe the same product. To match product reviews between a brand and retailer, Bazaarvoice needs to correlate the identifiers and metadata describing the product.

To ensure a brand’s content reaches as many shoppers as possible, the brand must provide Global Trade Item Numbers (GTINs), which include Universal Product Codes (UPCs), European Article Numbers (EANs), and International Standard Book Numbers (ISBNs).

The product catalog is an Extensible Markup Language (XML) file that is delivered to a brand-specific SFTP location for Bazaarvoice to process. A brand should upload its catalog to Bazaarvoice daily to ensure the most recent and relevant product data is used to match products across the Network.

So that Bazaarvoice can easily identify which content partner provided the catalog, prefix the file name with your partner's name. For example, if the name of the partner is Super Reviews, we would expect a file name similar to:

SuperReviews_NameofBrand_catalog_20190328.xml

Each product in the catalog should include the following information. If certain product information cannot be provided due to platform limitations, confirm with the Bazaarvoice partnership team that no functionality will be lost.

Including multiple GTINs for a single product

For Global Trade Item Number (GTIN) data, it may be helpful to add multiple GTINs for a product. For example, a brand sells diapers in different quantity variants: 10-count, 50-count, and 100-count. Each variant has its own UPC. We want to ensure that a review left on any quantity variant syndicates to a retailer, regardless of the quantity of diapers the retailer sells. For this, we would expect each quantity variant listed in the catalog to have all three UPCs associated with it. The <UPCs> section of the product element would look similar to the following example:

<UPCs>
    <!--UPC for 10 count-->
    <UPC>123456789123</UPC>
    <!--UPC for 50 count-->
    <UPC>987654321987</UPC>
    <!--UPC for 100 count-->
   <UPC>456456456456</UPC>
</UPCs>

Include multiple GTINs for a single product when:

• The products are identical, meaning the products are the same in all aspects.
• The only difference between the products is size, and the size does not affect the functionality of the product or the consumer experience. For example, we would match a small shirt to a large shirt when the material and composition is the same in every other way.
• The only difference between the products is the color, and the color does not affect the functionality of the product or the consumer experience. For example, we would match a black metal toaster to a white metal toaster that is otherwise identical.
• The only difference between the products is packaging, packaging size, or quantity included in the package. For example, we would match a package of 10 diapers with a package of 50 diapers, assuming the individual diapers themselves are identical.

Including inactive products

A brand should include all product data from its system even if the products are not active on the brand’s site. Each inactive product should have a removed=”true” attribute to ensure the proper product status is reflected in the Bazaarvoice system.

Example catalog

The following example shows an XML product catalog with one active product and one inactive product.

Note: For more information, refer to the full XML schema for the product catalog.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<Feed extractDate="2017-12-01T14:52:18.649518" incremental="false" name="client_name" xmlns="http://www.bazaarvoice.com/xs/PRR/ProductFeed/14.8">
    <Products>
        <Product>
            <ExternalId>product1</ExternalId>
            <Name>First Product Name</Name>
            <Description>First Product Description Text</Description>
            <Brand>
                <Name>brand-123</Name>
            </Brand>
            <ProductPageUrl>https://www.example.com/product2.htm</ProductPageUrl>
            <ImageUrl>https://www.example.com/image1.png</ImageUrl>
            <ManufacturerPartNumbers>
                <ManufacturerPartNumber>26-12345-8Z</ManufacturerPartNumber>
            </ManufacturerPartNumbers>
            <EANs>
                <EAN>0522001710187</EAN>
                <EAN>0188173724035</EAN>
            </EANs>
            <UPCs>
                <UPC>382157229387</UPC>
                <UPC>283929327285</UPC>
            </UPCs>
        </Product>
        <Product removed="”true”">
            <ExternalId>product2</ExternalId>
            <Name>Second Product Name</Name>
            <Description>Second Product Description Text</Description>
            <Brand>
                <Name>brand-123</Name>
            </Brand>
            <ProductPageUrl>https://www.example.com/product2.htm</ProductPageUrl>
            <ImageUrl>https://www.example.com/image2.png</ImageUrl>
            <ManufacturerPartNumbers>
                <ManufacturerPartNumber>26-12345-8Z</ManufacturerPartNumber>
            </ManufacturerPartNumbers>
            <EANs>
                <EAN>0522001710188</EAN>
                <EAN>0188173724034</EAN>
            </EANs>
            <UPCs>
                <UPC>382157229389</UPC>
                <UPC>283929327284</UPC>
            </UPCs>
        </Product>
    </Products>
</Feed>

For detailed information about creating a product catalog, read Create an XML product catalog feed.