Best Practice Data Fields for eCommerce Files

An important goal for your e-Commerce website should be to AUTOMATE as much as possible…DON’T GET CAUGHT IN SPREADSHEET HELL! When sourcing out Suppliers to work with, it’s important to vet them out to ensure a smooth  partnership. Take the time to ask them these questions regarding their product catalog:

• Do you provide a data feed with your latest products to include at least the required and (hopefully) recommended data fields?  Download our Best Practice Data Fields to learn more.
• Is the file in a flat file format like .csv, .txt, or even in Excel? If not, what format is it provided in and how it is retrieved (i.e. login and download from a website or placed on an FTP)?
• How often is the file updated…especially the inventory?

In addition, you’ll need to find out their process for accepting and confirming orders, shipping, and returns. Reduce the manual labor from your daily workload so you can focus on growing your business and you’ll have less chance for errors as a side effect. Focus on finding Dropship Suppliers that can provide their product data and inventory in a well-formed data feed so that managing your store and integrating with other eCommerce technology, like e-ProductPlug, can be seamless and easy.

If you want the experts at e-ProductPlug to review your Supplier’s datafeed first to ensure that it is compatible…contact us anytime at Sales@e-ProductPlug.com or 954-800-5282.