Placeholder value
A placeholder value is text such as N/A, TBC or see image that fills a cell without describing the product, so the cell looks complete when it is not.
- Non-value
- Dummy value
What it means
Supplier files are full of cells that hold something other than a value: N/A, TBC, absent, see image or a lone hyphen. Sometimes it is a category name, such as Baths, sitting in a type column. Each one fills the cell and describes nothing.
Software counts them as data. A spreadsheet’s blank count treats N/A as filled in, so the gap never shows, and a filter offers it as an option nobody wants. N/A is ambiguous too: it can mean not applicable or not known, and nothing in the cell says which.
Empty them rather than map them to anything. An empty cell is an honest gap that a quality check can count and enrichment can fill, whereas a placeholder hides the same gap as data.
Think of it like this
A coat left on a theatre seat is a placeholder. The seat looks taken, so nobody sits there, yet nobody has bought it.
For example
A freestanding bath’s row says N/A for overflow and Generic for brand. Both become blank cells: the overflow goes on the list of values to find, and the brand stays blank until the supplier confirms one.
Why it matters
Channels rule them out by name. Google’s product data specification says not to submit brand values such as “N/A”, “Generic”, “No brand” or “Does not exist”.1 OpenAI’s product feed specification for ChatGPT says “Do not use placeholder strings such as null, unknown, or n/a”.2
Not to be confused with
Sources
- Google Merchant Center Help. Product data specification.
- OpenAI Developers. Agentic Commerce product feed specification: Products.
- eBay Developers Program. Product Identifier Text.