Product groups

The Product Groups is an alternative to the Product Families feature that allows you to share native User-Generated Content (UGC) and visual galleries across equivalent products or product variants (e.g., a shirt in different sizes or colors). Adding these variants to a product group automatically displays UGC collected on any single product page across all the group members without any further configuration.

The two types of UGC sharing

1. Native sharing: Shares UGC between equivalent product variants on your own website.
2. Syndication: Shares UGC from your native website to a retailer's site. A review collected on your own site also appears on the same product's page on a retailer's site.

Tip: User-Generated Content (UGC) and gallery (visual media) sharing are now consolidated into Product Groups. If you use Product Groups, then use Product Families only for bundling products—grouping distinct products sold together as a single unit (e.g., a seasonal shampoo and conditioner set)

Product Groups vs. Product Families

Implementation requirements

1. Native UGC sharing: Ensure each variant includes a standard product identifier (UPC, GTIN, EAN, or ISBN).
2. Retailer review syndication: Syndication is matched on the primary identifier. Add every variant's product identifier to all members within the group, and assign a primary identifier.
   
   

   Note: Shopify and Google feed integrations handle GTIN stacking automatically.  
3. Galleries sharing: 
   1. A designated primary identifier is required for galleries sharing; variants or groups missing a primary identifier are automatically excluded from visual gallery experiences.
   2. A product with no primary identifier is also skipped for gallery experiences, so set one even if you are not syndicating.
4. Automated feed management: Creating or updating a group automatically generates or overwrites an internal feed family of the same name. You do not need to manually submit BV_FE_FAMILY or BV_FE_EXPAND attributes for variant sharing.
5. Product bundling: Not supported via Product Groups, use Product Families instead.

Configure product groups

Use Product Groups to share visual galleries and native UGC across equivalent product variants (e.g., Blue Large and Blue Small). 

You can create and manage a product group using any of the following methods:

1. XML feed file
2. Product Catalog application in Portal
3. Google product feed

Configure product group using XML feed

Use any of the following methods to create a product group:

1. Variant-level configuration (recommended)
2. Parent-level configuration

Method 1: Variant-level configuration (recommended)

1. Add core product metadata: Create the <Product>parent element and add child tags for <ProductId>, <Name>, <Description>, <ProductPageUrl>, and <ImageUrl>.
2. Add variant identifiers: Add a <UPCs> block containing individual <UPC> tags for every product variant in the group.
3. Add the primary identifier attribute: Designate one of the variant identifiers as the primary identifier for that product in the <Attributes> block with an <Attribute id="PRIMARY_IDENTIFIER_UPC">.
   
   

   Note:PRIMARY_IDENTIFIER_UPC is strictly required for retailer syndication and visual UGC sharing. 
4. Add the product group attribute: Add an <Attribute id="GROUP"> tag with a shared group ID to enable native and visual UGC sharing.
5. Add closing tags: Add the </Attributes> and </Product> closing tags to complete the XML structure.

Example XML feed structure

<Product>
  <ProductId>
    SKU-TSHIRT-BLUE-L
  </ProductId>
  <Name>T-Shirt -- Blue -- Large</Name>
  <Description>Blue T-Shirt, size Large.</Description>
  <ProductPageUrl>
    https://www.example.com/products/sku-tshirt-blue-l
  </ProductPageUrl>
  <ImageUrl>https://cdn.example.com/images/sku-tshirt-blue-l.jpg</ImageUrl>
  <UPCs>
    <!-- Multiple GTINs/UPCs for network sharing; PRIMARY_IDENTIFIER_UPC = primary GTIN -->
    <UPC>012345678905</UPC>
    <UPC>012345678912</UPC>
    <UPC>012345678929</UPC>
  </UPCs>
  <Attributes>
    <!-- REVIEW SHARING (network matching): primary identifier -->
    <Attribute id="PRIMARY_IDENTIFIER_UPC">
      <Value>012345678905</Value>
    </Attribute>
    <!-- UGC SHARING GROUP - powers native AND visual sharing; automatically creates/overwrites a feed Family of the same name under the hood -->
    <Attribute id="GROUP">
      <Value>TSHIRT-BLUE</Value>
    </Attribute>
  </Attributes>
</Product>

Method 2: Parent-level configuration

1. Add parent product metadata: Create the <Product> parent element and add <ProductId> and <Name> tags for the parent entry.
2. Add variant identifiers: Add a <UPCs> block containing <UPC> tags for all variant identifiers associated with the parent item.
3. Add the primary identifier attribute: Designate one of the variant identifiers as the primary identifier for that product in the <Attributes> block with an <Attribute id="PRIMARY_IDENTIFIER_UPC">.
   
   

   Note:PRIMARY_IDENTIFIER_UPC is strictly required for retailer syndication and visual UGC sharing. 
4. Add the product group attribute: Add an <Attribute id="GROUP"> tag containing the shared group ID value. 
5. Add closing tags: Add the </Attributes> and </Product> closing tags to complete the XML structure.​

Example XML feed structure

<Product>
  <!-- Single parent product entry -->
  <ProductId>
    PARENT-TSHIRT-BLUE
  </ProductId>
  <Name>T-Shirt -- Blue</Name>
  <!-- All variant identifiers included here -->
  <UPCs>
    <UPC>012345678905</UPC>
    <UPC>012345678912</UPC>
    <UPC>012345678929</UPC>
  </UPCs>
  <Attributes>
    <!-- Primary identifier should appear before the group attribute -->
    <Attribute id="PRIMARY_IDENTIFIER_UPC">
      <Value>012345678905</Value>
    </Attribute>
    <Attribute id="GROUP">
      <Value>TSHIRT-BLUE</Value>
    </Attribute>
  </Attributes>
</Product>

Configure product group in Portal

In the Product Catalog application, you can 

1. Create new product groups
2. Add products to an existing group
3. Remove products from a group
4. Delete product groups
   

Required solutions and roles

You must have:

Create product groups in Portal

1. Sign in to the Bazaarvoice Portal.
2. Select the required client instance name from the Instance Selector drop-down list in the upper-right corner.
3. From the navigation bar, select More > Product Catalog.
4. In the Products tab, select Groups.
5. Select + Create group.
6. Enter a name for your group. Do not include special characters in product group names. 
7. Select Save.
8. To add a product to your new group, select + Add product.
9. Enter the exact product ID and select Add.
10. Repeat Step 7 and Step 8 to add all the product variants to this new product group.
11. Select Submit.

Add products to an existing group in Portal

1. Sign in to the Bazaarvoice Portal.
2. Select the required client instance name from the Instance Selector drop-down list in the upper-right corner.
3. From the navigation bar, select More > Product Catalog.
4. In the Products tab, scroll down to the Product groups section.
5. Select a group from the drop-down.
6. Select Save changes.

Remove products from a group in Portal

1. Sign in to the Bazaarvoice Portal.
2. Select the required client instance name from the Instance Selector drop-down list in the upper-right corner.
3. From the navigation bar, select More > Product Catalog.
4. In the Products tab, select Groups.
5. Select the required group name.
6. From the product list, select  next to the one you want to remove and select Remove products from group.
7. To remove more than one product at a time, select the checkbox beside each product and then select Remove products.
8. In the confirmation dialog, select Remove product to complete the removal.

Delete product groups in Portal

1. Sign in to the Bazaarvoice Portal. 
2. Select the required client instance name from the Instance Selector drop-down list in the upper-right corner.
3. From the navigation bar, select More > Product Catalog. 
4. In the Products tab, select Groups.
5. From the groups list, select  next to the group you want to delete.
6. Select Delete group, then select Yes to confirm.

Migration guidelines for existing clients

1. Product Group is designed for variant products. This works best if product groups are configured at the variant level in your catalog feed file.
2. Contact Bazaarvoice Support in the following migration scenario:
   1. While changing a product ID (e.g., switching a Shopify product ID to a client-specified external ID).
   2. While moving content from one product to a different product.
   3. Parent-to-variant migration: existing content on the legacy parent entry needs to end up visible against the new variant entries.