Specifications
Specifications are the hard facts about a product, such as its dimensions, capacity, power, material and weight, each held as its own attribute.
- Specs
- Technical specifications
What it means
Specifications are the facts a shopper checks before buying and filters on while browsing: dimensions, capacity, power, material, colour. In product data each one is an attribute with its own value, in its own column, with one unit per column.
They are often the thinnest part of a supplier file, with blank cells for the very facts shoppers filter on, or three measurements crammed into one cell as 1850x595x655, with no unit. The missing values are usually published on the manufacturer’s product page, datasheet or manual.
Keep them as fields even after they appear in the product description, because filters and comparison tables read fields, not sentences. In a Google feed, extra specifications can go in the product_detail attribute, up to 100 per product, and Google says to provide one only “when the value is confirmed”.1
Think of it like this
Read the side of the box: the size, the wattage, the capacity. The picture on the front sells the product, and the side panel tells you whether it will fit.
For example
An illustrative fridge freezer arrives with Dimensions 1850x595x655, no capacity and an energy rating of A++. As specifications it becomes height 1850 mm, width 595 mm, depth 655 mm and capacity 331 L. The rating is looked up again rather than converted: fridges and freezers moved to a new A to G label on 1 March 2021,2 and the same appliance can carry a different letter on it.
Why it matters
Filters, comparison tables and AI assistants all work from specifications. A blank cannot be quoted, compared or matched. A wrong value is worse than a blank, because it looks finished and travels to every channel at once.
Not to be confused with
Specifications are not the product description. The description is prose written for people; specifications are separate fields that filters, comparison tables and feeds can read.
Sources
- Google Merchant Center Help. Product detail [product_detail].
- NetRegs (SEPA and NIEA). Energy labelling requirements.