Product data
Product data is everything recorded about a product so it can be found and sold: its name, brand, codes, specifications, category, images and price.
Product data basics
Glossary
Product data, in plain English
The words you meet when you sell products online, from barcodes to AI shopping assistants. Each one gets a one-sentence definition, then an explanation in everyday terms, a real example and links to the guides that go deeper.
- Terms explained
- 143
- Topics
- 9
- Guides that use them
- 27
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New to all of it? Start here.
Attribute
An attribute is one named property of a product, such as Colour, Width or Material, that every product of that kind should have a value for.
Product data basics
SKU
Stock keeping unit
A SKU is a seller’s own code for one product it stocks, down to the size and colour, used to track stock and match rows between systems.
Codes and barcodes
GTIN
Global Trade Item Number
A GTIN is the number printed under a product’s barcode, the code that identifies that exact product wherever in the world it is sold.
Codes and barcodes
Product feed
A product feed is a file listing your products and their details, such as title, price and availability, that you send to Google, ChatGPT or another channel.
Feeds and marketplaces
Product data enrichment
Product data enrichment is the work of adding what a product record is missing, such as its specifications, images and description, from sources you can check.
Cleaning and enrichment
Terms starting with A
Accessory
An accessory is a product that adds something new to another product, such as a wine rack for a fridge, rather than replacing a part it came with.
Product data basics
Additional images
Additional images are the pictures of a product that follow the main one: other angles, close-ups, the box, or the product in use.
Product images
Agentic commerce
Agentic commerce is buying through an AI assistant that acts for the shopper, finding a product and, where the shop allows it, placing the order.
Search and AI
AI hallucination
An AI hallucination is a statement from an AI model that sounds plausible but is false, such as a made-up measurement, feature or guarantee.
Search and AI
AI Mode
AI Mode is a part of Google Search that answers a question with an AI-powered response, which you can follow up with further questions.
Search and AI
AI shopping assistant
An AI shopping assistant is a chatbot or search feature that answers shopping questions by matching them against the product data shops publish.
Search and AI
Alt text
Alt text is a short written description attached to an image on a web page, read aloud by screen readers and used by search engines.
Product images
API
Application programming interface
An API is a set of rules that lets one piece of software ask another for data, or send it data, without a person in between.
Files, tools and imports
ASIN
Amazon Standard Identification Number
An ASIN is Amazon’s own 10 character code for a product in its catalogue, generated when the product is first listed there.
Codes and barcodes
Aspect ratio
An aspect ratio is the shape of an image, given as its width compared with its height: 1:1 is square, while 4:3 and 16:9 are wider than tall.
Product images
Attribute
An attribute is one named property of a product, such as Colour, Width or Material, that every product of that kind should have a value for.
Product data basics
Attribute value
An attribute value is what an attribute holds for one product, such as Navy for Colour, 595 mm for Width or Acrylic for Material.
Product data basics
Availability
Availability is a product’s stock status as a channel reads it, which in a Google feed is one of four values: in stock, out of stock, pre-order or backorder.
Prices and stock
Terms starting with B
Backorder
A backorder is an order taken for a product that is out of stock for now, to be dispatched when new stock arrives.
Prices and stock
Barcode
A barcode is a pattern of bars that a scanner can read, and on a product it holds the GTIN, the number printed underneath.
Codes and barcodes
Brand
A brand is the name a product is sold under and that shoppers search for, which is not always the name of the company that made it.
Product data basics
Brand Authorisation
Brand Authorisation is TikTok Shop’s check that a seller owns a brand’s trademark or has permission to use it, approved before that brand can be listed.
Feeds and marketplaces
Brand Registry
Brand Registry is Amazon’s free programme for brand owners with a trademark, which helps them protect their brand and manage its listings.
Feeds and marketplaces
Broken link
A broken link is a web address that no longer leads where it should, such as an image link that returns an error instead of a picture.
Product images
Bundle
A bundle is a main product sold with different, complementary products as one package at one price, such as a camera with a lens and a bag.
Prices and stock
Terms starting with C
Canonical value
A canonical value is the one agreed way of writing a value, which every other spelling of it is mapped onto, such as Navy for NVY and navy blue.
Cleaning and enrichment
Case code
A case code is the 14 digit GTIN on an outer case or multipack, identifying the box of several items rather than any one item inside it.
Codes and barcodes
Catalogue
A catalogue is the complete set of products a shop sells, together with all the product data that describes each one.
Product data basics
Categorisation
Categorisation is the work of filing every product in the category of your own tree where a shopper would expect to find it.
Categories and filters
Category mapping
Category mapping is a saved table that pairs each category in one tree, such as a supplier’s, with the matching category in another, such as yours.
Categories and filters
Category path
A category path names a category together with every category above it, from the top level down, usually with a > sign between the levels.
Categories and filters
Category tree
A category tree is a shop’s categories arranged in levels, where each category sits inside one broader parent and can hold narrower ones.
Categories and filters
ChatGPT product feed
A ChatGPT product feed is a file of a shop’s products in OpenAI’s format, which ChatGPT uses to find and show them with current prices and stock.
Search and AI
Check digit
A check digit is the last digit of a barcode number, worked out from the digits before it so that a typing mistake can be caught.
Codes and barcodes
Column mapping
Column mapping is a table saying which of your fields each column in a supplier’s spreadsheet feeds, built once per supplier and reused on every file.
Cleaning and enrichment
Combination
A combination is PrestaShop’s word for one version of a product, such as a red T-shirt in size M, made by picking one value from each attribute.
Product data basics
Compatibility list
A compatibility list names every model a part, accessory or consumable fits, ideally as one row per model rather than a sentence such as “fits most”.
Product data basics
Completeness
Completeness measures whether each product has every value its category needs, such as a capacity on a fridge freezer, counted one category at a time.
Cleaning and enrichment
Compound value
A compound value is one cell holding several facts at once, such as 1850x595x655 for three dimensions or S/M/L/XL for four sizes.
Cleaning and enrichment
Consistency
Consistency means each attribute is written one way across the whole catalogue: one unit per field, one word per value and one format per identifier.
Cleaning and enrichment
Consumable
A consumable is a product that another product uses up, such as a fridge water filter or a vacuum cleaner bag, so the shopper buys it again and again.
Product data basics
Conversion rate
Conversion rate is the share of visits to a shop, or to one product page, that end in a purchase, usually shown as a percentage.
Prices and stock
Crawler
A crawler is a program that visits web pages automatically, following links and reading what it finds, for a search engine or another service.
Search and AI
Cross-sell
A cross-sell is a product suggested to go with one a shopper is already buying, such as a case for a laptop or a filter for a fridge.
Prices and stock
CSV
Comma-separated values
A CSV is a plain text file that holds a table, with each row on its own line and a comma between the values in it.
Files, tools and imports
Terms starting with D
Data cleansing
Data cleansing means correcting the values already in a product file, such as mixed units, misspellings, placeholders and duplicate rows.
Cleaning and enrichment
Data model
A data model is the written plan for your product data: the product types you sell, the attributes each has, and each attribute’s type, values and unit.
Cleaning and enrichment
Data provenance
Data provenance is a record of where each value came from, kept with the data so anyone can check it, such as a link to the manufacturer’s page.
Cleaning and enrichment
Data quality score
A data quality score sums up how ready a catalogue’s product data is, from checks on completeness, consistency and sources, often with a grade per product.
Cleaning and enrichment
Data validation
Data validation means checking each value against a rule as it goes in, such as a drop-down list or a barcode check, and refusing or flagging what fails.
Cleaning and enrichment
Disapproval
A disapproval is Google Merchant Center’s ruling that a product breaks one of its requirements and cannot be shown on Google until the problem is fixed.
Feeds and marketplaces
Distributor
A distributor is a business that buys products from many manufacturers and sells them on to retailers, usually under product codes of its own.
Product data basics
Duplicate product
A duplicate product is one physical item held as two or more records in a catalogue, such as two SKUs, two product pages or two rows in a feed.
Cleaning and enrichment
Terms starting with E
EAN
European Article Number
An EAN is a 13 digit barcode number, the form of GTIN used on products in Europe and much of the rest of the world.
Codes and barcodes
Ecommerce platform
An ecommerce platform is the software an online shop runs on: it holds the products, shows them as pages, takes payment and records orders.
Files, tools and imports
Terms starting with F
Filters
Filters are the options on a category or search page, such as Colour or Width, that let shoppers narrow a list of products to the ones that match.
Categories and filters
Flat file
A flat file is a plain text file holding one table, one record per line, such as a CSV; Amazon also uses the name for its listing templates.
Files, tools and imports
Free listings
Free listings are Google’s way of showing your products at no cost across Search, the Shopping tab, YouTube and more, using your Merchant Center data.
Feeds and marketplaces
Terms starting with G
Generative AI
Generative AI is software that creates new content, such as text, images or audio, from patterns it learned from large amounts of existing examples.
Search and AI
Google Merchant Center
Google Merchant Center is Google’s free tool for uploading and managing product data, so your products can appear across Google Search, YouTube and more.
Feeds and marketplaces
Google product category
The Google product category is where Google files a product in its own taxonomy, a choice it makes automatically and lets you override in a few cases.
Categories and filters
Google Shopping
Google Shopping is the everyday name for the places Google shows products for sale, most visibly the Shopping tab at google.com/shopping.
Feeds and marketplaces
GS1
GS1 is the global organisation that sets the standards for barcodes and issues the company prefixes from which GTINs are built.
Codes and barcodes
GTIN
Global Trade Item Number
A GTIN is the number printed under a product’s barcode, the code that identifies that exact product wherever in the world it is sold.
Codes and barcodes
GTIN exemption
A GTIN exemption is Amazon’s permission to list a product that has no GTIN, such as an own-brand item, granted per product category and per store.
Codes and barcodes
Terms starting with H
Handle
A handle is Shopify’s unique name for a product, used in the product’s web address and to hold its rows together in a CSV import.
Files, tools and imports
Terms starting with I
Image format
An image format is the way a picture file is stored, such as JPEG, PNG or WebP, and each store or channel accepts only some formats.
Product images
Image resolution
Image resolution is the number of pixels in a picture, given as width by height (such as 1500 by 1500), and it sets how much detail the picture can show.
Product images
ISBN
International Standard Book Number
An ISBN is the 13 digit number that identifies one edition and format of a book, and Google accepts it as the book’s GTIN.
Codes and barcodes
Item condition
Item condition says whether a product is new, refurbished or used, which Google uses to refine search results and to tell offers of one product apart.
Prices and stock
Item group ID
An item group ID is the Google Merchant Center attribute that ties the sizes and colours of one product together, with one value on every variant.
Codes and barcodes
Item specifics
Item specifics are the labelled details of an eBay listing, such as Brand, Colour or Material, each one a name paired with a value.
Feeds and marketplaces
Terms starting with J
JSON-LD
JSON for Linked Data
JSON-LD is a format for writing structured data as a separate block of code in a web page, apart from the text that shoppers read.
Search and AI
Terms starting with K
Keyword stuffing
Keyword stuffing is cramming a page, title or description with repeated search terms to try to rank higher, at the cost of reading naturally.
Search and AI
Terms starting with L
Landing page
A landing page is the page on your website a shopper arrives at after clicking your product on Google, set by the link attribute in your feed.
Feeds and marketplaces
Large language model
A large language model, or LLM, is an AI system trained on vast amounts of text that writes and answers questions by predicting likely words.
Search and AI
Leading zero
A leading zero is a 0 at the start of a code, such as a barcode, which spreadsheets often delete because they mistake the code for a number.
Files, tools and imports
Leaf category
A leaf category is a category at the very end of a branch of a category tree, with nothing narrower beneath it, where products are filed.
Categories and filters
Lifestyle image
A lifestyle image shows a product in use or in a real setting, such as a sofa in a furnished room or a jacket being worn.
Product images
Limited performance
Limited performance means a product in Google Merchant Center can still show on Google, but only in some places or without all of its details.
Feeds and marketplaces
Listing
A listing is a product’s entry on a marketplace or shopping channel: the title, photos, price, description and details a buyer sees there.
Feeds and marketplaces
Terms starting with M
Main image
A main image is the one picture chosen to represent a product: the first on its page, and the one sent to channels such as Google.
Product images
Manufacturer
A manufacturer is the company that makes a product and sets its identity: its part number, usually its barcode, and the specifications it publishes.
Product data basics
Marketplace
A marketplace is a website such as eBay or Amazon where many sellers list products side by side and buyers pay through the marketplace’s own checkout.
Feeds and marketplaces
Megapixel
A megapixel is a million pixels, the unit for an image’s total pixel count, found by multiplying its width by its height.
Product images
Merchant listing
A merchant listing is Google’s term for product markup on a page where shoppers can buy from you, with room for price, stock, delivery and returns.
Search and AI
Meta description
A meta description is a short summary of a web page, written into its code, which search engines may show under the result’s headline.
Search and AI
Meta title
A meta title is the title written into a web page’s code, which search engines can use as the clickable headline of a search result.
Search and AI
Metafield
A metafield is an extra field you add to a Shopify product, or other record, to hold a detail its built-in fields have no place for.
Categories and filters
MPN
Manufacturer part number
An MPN is the code a manufacturer gives a product within its own range, and it identifies the product only when paired with the brand.
Codes and barcodes
Multipack
A multipack is several identical units of one product sold together as one item at one price, such as a box of six ink cartridges.
Prices and stock
Terms starting with N
Nominal size
A nominal size is the round figure a product is sold and named by, such as the 60cm in a 60cm fridge freezer, rather than its exact measurement.
Product data basics
Normalisation
Normalisation means mapping every way a value has been written onto one agreed form, so each real thing appears once in your filters and feeds.
Cleaning and enrichment
Terms starting with O
Own brand
An own-brand product is sold under the seller’s own brand name rather than its maker’s, and is also called private label, own label or shop brand.
Product data basics
Terms starting with P
Packshot
A packshot is a plain studio photograph of a product, or its pack, on a clean background, usually white, with nothing else in the frame.
Product images
Parent product
A parent product is the product as a whole that holds its variants together, such as the hoodie itself rather than the navy hoodie in size M.
Product data basics
PIM
Product information management
A PIM is software that holds a catalogue’s product data in one place, checks it against set rules and prepares it for each place you sell.
Files, tools and imports
Pixel
A pixel is one of the tiny squares of colour that make up a digital picture; image sizes are counted in pixels across and down.
Product images
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.
Cleaning and enrichment
Pre-order
A pre-order is an order taken for a product that has not been released yet, to be dispatched once it comes out.
Prices and stock
Price mismatch
A price mismatch is when the price in your product feed differs from the price on your own product page, which can get the product disapproved on Google.
Feeds and marketplaces
Product data
Product data is everything recorded about a product so it can be found and sold: its name, brand, codes, specifications, category, images and price.
Product data basics
Product data enrichment
Product data enrichment is the work of adding what a product record is missing, such as its specifications, images and description, from sources you can check.
Cleaning and enrichment
Product description
A product description is the text that tells a shopper, in plain sentences, what a product is, what it is made of and what comes with it.
Product data basics
Product dimensions
Product dimensions are the length, width and height of the item itself as it stands in use, as opposed to the box it is delivered in.
Product data basics
Product feed
A product feed is a file listing your products and their details, such as title, price and availability, that you send to Google, ChatGPT or another channel.
Feeds and marketplaces
Product identifier
A product identifier is a code that pins down exactly which product a listing is, such as a GTIN, or a brand and MPN together.
Codes and barcodes
Product import
A product import loads many products into a store at once from a file, usually a CSV, creating new products or updating existing ones.
Files, tools and imports
Product matching
Product matching means confirming which real product a supplier’s row describes, using its codes and specifications, before any value is copied onto it.
Cleaning and enrichment
Product page
A product page is the page in an online shop where one product is shown and bought, with its title, images, price, description and specifications.
Product data basics
Product snippet
A product snippet is a Google search result showing extra product details, such as ratings, price and availability, drawn from Product markup.
Search and AI
Product title
A product title is the name a product is listed under in a shop, a feed or a marketplace, ideally built from its brand, type and key attributes.
Product data basics
Product type
Product type is your own label for what kind of product something is, such as Fitted sheets, kept apart from a channel’s official category.
Categories and filters
Terms starting with R
Rich results
Rich results are search results that show extra details, such as a price, stock or star rating, taken from a page’s structured data.
Search and AI
RRP
Recommended retail price
An RRP, or recommended retail price, is the selling price a manufacturer or supplier suggests for a product, which the retailer is free to set differently.
Prices and stock
Terms starting with S
Sales channel
A sales channel is any place your products are offered to buyers, from your own online store to eBay, Amazon or Google, each with its own rules.
Feeds and marketplaces
Schema.org
Schema.org is a shared vocabulary of names for things on web pages, such as Product, Offer and price, used to write structured data.
Search and AI
Scientific notation
Scientific notation is a short way to write a long number, like 5.01235E+12, and a barcode that leaves a spreadsheet in that form has lost digits.
Files, tools and imports
Seller Central
Seller Central is the website where businesses that sell on Amazon list their products, track sales and run their selling account.
Feeds and marketplaces
SEO
Search engine optimisation
SEO, or search engine optimisation, is the work of helping search engines understand your pages so the right shoppers can find them.
Search and AI
Shipping dimensions
Shipping dimensions are the length, width, height and weight of the parcel a product travels in, which carriers and channels use to work out delivery costs.
Product data basics
Shopify
Shopify is a hosted ecommerce platform: Shopify runs the software and the servers, and a business uses them to run its online shop.
Files, tools and imports
Shopify Standard Product Taxonomy
The Shopify Standard Product Taxonomy is Shopify’s own published list of product categories, and every product in a Shopify store should carry one.
Categories and filters
Shopping ads
Shopping ads are Google’s paid product ads, built from your Merchant Center data, that show a photo of the product with its title, price and shop name.
Feeds and marketplaces
Shopping Graph
The Shopping Graph is Google’s store of product information from brands, retailers and others, used across Search, ads and Google’s AI features.
Search and AI
SKU
Stock keeping unit
A SKU is a seller’s own code for one product it stocks, down to the size and colour, used to track stock and match rows between systems.
Codes and barcodes
Spare part
A spare part is a replacement for a piece a product came with, such as a fridge door shelf, usually bought by someone holding the broken one.
Product data basics
Specifications
Specifications are the hard facts about a product, such as its dimensions, capacity, power, material and weight, each held as its own attribute.
Product data basics
Staging site
A staging site is a private copy of your shop where you try out an import or a change before it reaches the live store.
Files, tools and imports
Structured data
Structured data is code on a web page that labels its facts, such as a product’s name, price and stock, in a standard form machines can read.
Search and AI
Supplier
A supplier is any business you buy stock from, whether it made the products or not, and usually the source of the spreadsheet that describes them.
Product data basics
Supplier code
A supplier code is a supplier’s own reference for a product, the code its price lists and invoices use, which means nothing outside its systems.
Codes and barcodes
Supplier onboarding
Supplier onboarding is the work of turning a supplier’s product spreadsheet into products your store or PIM can import: mapped, cleaned, filled in and checked.
Cleaning and enrichment
Supplier template
A supplier template is a spreadsheet you ask suppliers to fill in using your columns, units and category names before they send you product data.
Cleaning and enrichment
Terms starting with T
Taxonomy
A taxonomy is an agreed scheme of categories, arranged from broad to specific, that every product in a catalogue is filed into.
Categories and filters
Thumbnail
A thumbnail is a small, low-detail copy of a picture, made for previews, galleries and lists rather than for looking at up close.
Product images
Trade price
A trade price is the price a supplier charges a retailer for stock, usually quoted before VAT, as opposed to the price a shopper pays.
Prices and stock
Terms starting with U
Unit of measure
A unit of measure is the unit a number is counted in, such as kg, g, cm, mm or ml, and without it the number cannot be read correctly.
Product data basics
Unit pricing
Unit pricing shows a price per standard quantity, such as per kg, per litre or per 100 ml, beside the selling price so shoppers can compare pack sizes.
Prices and stock
UPC
Universal Product Code
A UPC is the 12 digit form of the GTIN, the barcode number used mainly on products sold in North America.
Codes and barcodes
Upscaling
Upscaling means enlarging an image to more pixels than it was made with, which makes it bigger without adding any real detail.
Product images
Upsell
An upsell is a better or dearer alternative suggested in place of the product a shopper is looking at, such as the next model up.
Prices and stock
UTF-8
UTF-8 is a way of storing text in a file that can represent every character, from the £ sign to the é in café.
Files, tools and imports
Terms starting with V
Variant
A variant is one buyable version of a product that differs from its siblings only in details such as size or colour, like a navy hoodie in size M.
Product data basics
Variation theme
A variation theme tells Amazon what the products in a variation family differ by, such as size, colour or both, chosen from a list for each product type.
Feeds and marketplaces
VAT
Value added tax
VAT, or value added tax, is a tax added to most goods and services sold by VAT-registered businesses, and shop prices already include it.
Prices and stock
Terms starting with W
Watermark
A watermark is a name, logo or pattern laid over a photograph, usually to show who owns it or to stop it being reused.
Product images
WooCommerce
WooCommerce is an open-source ecommerce platform that adds an online shop to a WordPress website, from product pages to the checkout.
Files, tools and imports
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