Datafeeds - a supplier that really delivers...

[~Ed~]

I visited the site of one of our supplierss to add a line of specific products to our website and found that they enhanced their dealer tools. I haven't been pushing their products that much, but they are truly a quality supplier that is easy to place orders with and prompt in order processing.

Well, they now have a datafeed feature that is completely user configurable. Using drop downs I First select the format of the file (XML, CSV, or Tab Delimited), the products by category or manufacturer, and whether in stock, out of stock or both. Then there are thirty nine dropdowns with every one of their database fields selectable plus a "blank" selection. So I can essentially arrange their data fields to match my database including blanks to skip unused or non-matching fields. The last dropdown is "save query". When submitted the entire file is created and delivered to my browser in about ten seconds.

This is an absolute boon to my product updating. And what is really nice is that I suddenly have twelve thousand new product additions that I can integrate very painlessly. The images are also provided for every product and just need to be downloaded. Once I get everything added I'll create a routine to query their data for stock levels and automatically update them in our database. So I know what I'm going to be doing the next few days.

Now this is a supplier that knows the value of giving their dealers the tools to sell the products. I wish all affiliate program merchants understood the concept.

[Convergence]

Ah "To dream the impossible dream"

Datafeeds are critical in an affiliates business. I do wish all merchants were as good as the one you have partnered with.

[msladybug]

Good find Ed, a quality supplier with such a wonderful datafeed tool to work with, is indeed a dream come true. Sounds like this supplier really took the time to think through and provide tools to help build their own sales in the end. Also, what a great amount of products to add to your stores inventory. Good luck with it!!