Creating a data feed for Rakuten LinkShare
From Spiffy Stores Knowledge Base
Setting up a product data feed for your products is a great way to get added exposure for your online store by syndicating them to a variety of these shopping portals.
Product data feeds are updated whenever you make a change to your products, so you can be sure that they're up to date. To create a data feed for Rakuten LinkShare follow the instructions below.
IMPORTANT!
You need to ensure that all of your products have a Barcode (UPC/EAN, ISBN) and SKU (Stock Keeping Unit) before submitting your data file Rakuten LinkShare. If you don't do this, they will not accept your submission!
Contents
Step 1 - Create a collection of products
Collections Section
Firstly we need to have a list of products to send to Rakuten LinkShare. To create this, you'll need to create a collection that contains all of the products you want in your data feed. You can create a Standard Collection or a Super Collection. This can be done in the "Collections" section of your store's Toolbox.
If you already have created a collection for another provider (for example Shopping.com), or you just want to have all of your products in your feed, you can skip this step.
Step 2 - Creating your data feed
Creating your data feed
After you have created your collection, go to the
"Marketing -> Product data feeds" section of your store's Toolbox, and click the "Activate" button in the LinkShare section.
- Enter a name for your feed. It's not used anywhere except for your reference.
- Select the collection you created in Step 1
- Enter your Merchant ID that has been provided to you by LinkShare
- Click the "Activate" button
Rakuten Linkshare currently require you to upload a text file. Once you have created your file, it is updated every time to make a change to your products, so you may need to manually upload your file every few weeks. To access
Common Errors
Insufficient product identifiers: Missing two out of three attributes [GTIN, brand, mpn]
The brand field is already populated, so this means that you have not entered a Barcode for this product. You will need to edit the product in your store's Toolbox and ensure it has a Barcode number entered in the "Barcode" field. You can also use the Import/Export feature to update your products if your store is on the Business Plan or above. You can enter a GTIN, MPN, UPC, EAN or ISBN here. More information about a GTIN can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Trade_Item_Number
Missing required attribute: id
This means that you have not entered a SKU for this product. You will need to edit the product in your store's Toolbox and ensure it has a SKU entered in the SKU field. You can also use the Import/Export feature to update your products if your store is on the Business Plan or above.
Missing recommended attribute: google product category
We cannot include the Google product category in the feed. You can safely ignore this warning.
Website URL not claimed
You will need to claim your website in the General Settings section of Google Merchant Center.