Product feeds

This article will help you create and manage product feeds for Google Merchant Center, chatbots, recommenders and ChatGPT

A product feed is a file with your catalogue that other tools download regularly: Google Merchant Center, product recommenders and chatbots, or ChatGPT shopping. In TronShop you can create as many feeds as you need. Each feed has its own public address and its own rules for variants, prices, stock and images.

Where in admin: Marketing → Product feeds

On this page

• The Product feeds page
• Presets: what is this feed for?
• Creating a new feed
• Custom feeds: all options
• Public URL and access key
• When the feed is updated
• The system default Google Merchant feed
• Connecting a feed to Google Merchant Center
• Setting up a feed for a chatbot or recommender
• What goes into a feed
• Who can manage feeds
• Need help?

The Product feeds page

Go to Marketing → Product feeds. The list shows every feed of your shop with its Language / Currency, Price, Status, Last run (when the file was last generated, with the number of products and items) and Public URL. Feeds marked Auto are rebuilt after every catalogue sync.

From the list you can copy a feed’s public URL, run Generate now, open a feed to edit it, or create a new one with New feed.

Every shop already has one feed called Google Merchant, marked System default. It is your existing Google Merchant feed (see The system default Google Merchant feed).

Presets: what is this feed for?

When you open or create a feed, the card What is this feed for? lets you pick the tool that will read the feed. A preset sets every rule for you, so you do not have to set anything else.

With a preset selected, the cards Products & variants, Price & VAT and Stock & images only show what the preset does. To change any of these rules, click Switch to Custom to edit: the feed keeps its current values and all options are unlocked.

On the OpenAI / ChatGPT preset, Eligible for ChatGPT search is on by default and Eligible for ChatGPT checkout is off. Switch checkout on only after you have finished checkout onboarding with OpenAI.

Creating a new feed

1. Go to Marketing → Product feeds and click New feed.
2. Under What is this feed for?, choose a preset: Google Merchant, Recommender, OpenAI / ChatGPT or Custom.
3. In General → Identity, enter a Title, for example “Google Merchant DE” or “Chatbot”. The title is shown only in the admin. The Feed address is filled in from the title; you can change it now. It may contain lower-case letters, digits and dashes (3–60 characters).
4. Optional: switch on Protect with access key if the file should not be openly downloadable (see Public URL and access key).
5. In Output, choose the Language (titles, descriptions and links use this language) and the Currency. Leave the currency on the shop primary currency, or pick another currency enabled in your shop; prices are then converted with the shop’s exchange rate.
6. In Availability, keep Enabled on and decide whether to keep Regenerate after every catalogue sync on (recommended).
7. Click SAVE.
8. Click Generate now to create the file straight away, or wait for the next catalogue sync. Until the file has been generated for the first time, its public URL does not return anything.

Custom feeds: all options

With the Custom preset, the following options are available:

When you choose One item per product, the title and link switch to the model name and model page automatically. You can change them afterwards.

Public URL and access key

After the first save, the card Status & URL shows the feed’s Public URL with Copy and Open buttons. The address looks like this:

https://www.your-shop.com/feeds/<feed-address>.xml (Google Merchant and Recommender feeds)
https://www.your-shop.com/feeds/<feed-address>.tsv (OpenAI / ChatGPT feeds)

By default anyone who knows the address can download the feed. To limit that, switch on Protect with access key in General → Identity and click SAVE. The key is then added to the public URL as ?key=…, so always copy the complete URL with the Copy button. Google, Meta and most other tools accept a key in the URL.

A request without the key, or with a wrong key, gets a “not found” (404) answer, the same as for a feed that does not exist. A disabled or deleted feed also answers “not found”.

When the feed is updated

• Regenerate after every catalogue sync on (shown as Auto in the list): the feed is rebuilt automatically every time your catalogue finishes syncing.

• Manual only: the file is rebuilt only when you click Generate now (in the list or on the feed page). For large catalogues this takes about a minute.

The State on the feed page shows Ready, Running…, Failed or Not generated yet, together with the last generation time, the number of products and items, and the duration.

Tools such as Google Merchant Center download the file on their own schedule, so changes reach them at their next fetch.

The system default Google Merchant feed

The feed called Google Merchant with the System default tag is the Google Merchant feed your shop had before. It is generated in your shop’s primary language and keeps its original address https://www.your-shop.com/google-merchant/<language number>, so the URL already registered in Merchant Center keeps working. You do not need to change anything in Merchant Center.

• It cannot be deleted or disabled.

• It cannot be protected with an access key, because that would break the address registered in Merchant Center. Create a new feed if you need a protected one.

• Its address and language cannot be changed.

• You can change its title, currency and Regenerate after every catalogue sync setting. We recommend keeping the Google Merchant preset.

Connecting a feed to Google Merchant Center

1. Go to Marketing → Product feeds.
2. Open the Google Merchant (System default) feed, or create a new feed with the Google Merchant preset, for example for another language. If it is a new feed, click SAVE and then Generate now.
3. In Status & URL, click Copy next to the Public URL.
4. In Google Merchant Center, add the URL as a scheduled fetch (Products → Feeds → Scheduled fetch). The complete Merchant Center setup is described in Google Merchant Center – How to connect to TronShop.
5. Keep Regenerate after every catalogue sync on, so Google always fetches current prices and stock.

Setting up a feed for a chatbot or recommender

1. Go to Marketing → Product feeds and click New feed.
2. Choose the Recommender preset.
3. Enter a Title, for example “Chatbot”, and check the Feed address.
4. Choose the Language your chatbot speaks and, if needed, the Currency.
5. Optional: switch on Protect with access key if the tool supports a key in the URL.
6. Click SAVE, then Generate now.
7. Copy the Public URL and paste it into the product-feed or catalogue setting of your chatbot or recommender tool.

If the tool needs something different, for example prices without VAT or only products in stock, click Switch to Custom to edit and change only the options you need.

What goes into a feed

• Feeds contain catalogue products that are published in your shop. Custom products and print products are not included.

• Products with a price of 0 are always left out.

• Products without an image are left out by the presets; a Custom feed can include them.

• Titles, descriptions and links are in the language of the feed.

Who can manage feeds

Admin users who can view the Marketing section (for example with the View marketing role) can see the list of feeds. Creating, editing and deleting feeds and Generate now need the right to manage marketing (for example the Manage marketing role).

Need help?