Shopping feed providers to compare by writing inclusion criteria first

What to take away

Write your inclusion criteria first

Most provider lists are ordered by commission, not fit. Write your criteria first, then read those lists through them.

A workable set has five tests. Catalogue size: can it handle your SKU count? Channels: does it support Google Shopping, Amazon, eBay, Microsoft Shopping and your marketplaces? Languages: does it manage UK English plus any EU language? Order routing: can it send orders to your platform? Support: what response times will it put in writing?

Weight those tests before anyone scores a provider. A shop with 40,000 SKUs on one channel needs different proof from a shop with 800 SKUs across four marketplaces. A sales call cannot move the weighting later.

Geography needs its own line. Name the nations each provider must cover. Do not assume one UK service.

For a repeatable way to score answers, the comparison methods guide explains how to weight criteria before scores exist.

Named providers to test against the brief

Use the same written brief for each candidate. These tools are publicly known in feed management. Score them on your criteria.

Read this grid as a starting point, not a score. A cell becomes a score only when the supplier answers your written brief.

The checks that make two providers comparable

Two providers can look identical on a pricing page and behave nothing alike by week six. Comparable evidence means the same questions answered in the same format.

Set a cut-off for silence. If a provider will not commit to support hours, data mapping or error handling in writing, record it as unresolved.

Check the compliance record before the feature list

Advertising claims in the UK sit under the CAP Code, and rule 3.1 says marketing must not mislead materially. The ASA publishes a list of non-compliant online advertisers. Check it when marketing looks louder than documentation.

Check where the data comes from and where it goes

Feed tools touch product data, customer records and payment details. The ICO guidance on designing products that protect privacy sets out what to expect from default settings, data minimisation and retention.

Enforcement is not theoretical. The ICO fined Easylife Ltd £1.35m in 2022 for using customer data to infer health conditions and send targeted marketing without valid consent.

Ask for a data flow diagram, not a policy page. A supplier that cannot draw one has not documented its processing.

ONS digital economy statistics cover internet sales and ecommerce adoption. Use them to size a market without leaning on a vendor's slide.

Work out what the review itself costs

Product feed quotes rarely arrive as one number. Channable, DataFeedWatch and GoDataFeed publish tiered plans, so the price moves with item count, channel count and update frequency. Feedonomics and Productsup price by quote.

Ask every supplier to quote on the same SKU count, channel list and support hours. Otherwise the cheapest number belongs to the lightest brief.

The table below is a hypothetical worked example, not a benchmark. No figure in it comes from a supplier quote, so replace each line with the numbers from your own review.

Keep a written record of what you compared

A review that lives in four browser tabs cannot be repeated. Keep one file with criteria, answers, quotes and issue dates.

Give that file an owner inside the team. A comparison that depends on one person's memory disappears when they change role.

Screenshot pricing pages when you read them. Prices change without notice, and a dated copy settles disputes.

If two suppliers answer differently, record both answers rather than averaging them.

Common questions

Which providers should appear on a shortlist?

Start with the five criteria. Then ask Channable, DataFeedWatch, Feedonomics, Productsup and GoDataFeed to answer the same brief. No neutral league table exists. Your shortlist should follow your criteria, not someone else's ranking.

How many suppliers should a review cover?

Three to five is usually enough to see how answers differ without full procurement. More than five rarely changes the criteria.

Where does agency help fit in?

Some retailers need hands on the feed rather than another licence. The agency reviews in England article sets out how to read agency claims and what to ask for in a written scope.