Product Variant Mapping allows you to set FeedPerfect to auto-generate Product Variants from the product options on your store.

Before Beginning: Be sure that you have categorized your products in the Google channel. Google Product Search has special requirements regarding Product Variant submission that may differ depending on the categories you choose. You may categorize your products at any level to proceed. This includes setting a default category on the Channel > Settings >General Tab, or by using the Map By Store Category, or Map By Product tools on the Product Catalog page.

Set Schedule Upload to Manual

Once you have categorized your products, it is recommended that you temporarily disable any automated feed delivery before publishing your first feed. Under Channel > Settings > delivery, set the Schedule Upload dropdown to Manually and save before continuing. This will prevent any poor quality data from being submitted while you are setting up your Product Variant Mappings.

Product Variant Mapping

If you have an eligible store type and are using at least one feed that supports Product Variant Mapping, you will have an additional option under Categorization / CPC on the Product Catalog page. Click the Product Variant Mapping link to proceed.

Select Google Product Search US from the drop down.

FeedPerfect will first check to see if you have your products Categorized in Google Product Search US. If you do not, you need to categorize your products first. Variant generation will differ depending on what categories you place your products within.

FeedPerfect will then check for options on the products that you have categorized. If you have no options on the products on your store, Variants are not necessary.

Once your products are categorized, you will see the Categories with Products within the first section of the Product Variant Mappings page.

The "Categories with Products" table shows all the Categories which contain products for Google Product Search. Select all Categories wish to create Variants for in your Google Product Search feed. You can select multiple categories and click the orange arrow to move them to the Variant Enabled Categories panel. Once you have all the categories you wish to use, click the Save Categories button.

If products within these categories have options on your store, you will now see a unique list of Option names on the left. Select all of the Option Name that you use to refer to color on your store. Select color variants from the drop down and click the orange arrow. Now repeat for all of the sizes, materials, and patterns if applicable. Once you have mapped all of the Option Names to the appropriate variant in google, click Save Variant Mappings.

You will now see all the values listed on the store within those Option Names. Some may be invalid colors, sizes, material, or patterns and should be excluded here. Select the invalid option values such as "Choose a size" and click the orange arrow. Once you have filtered out all the invalid options which do not apply, click Save Excluded Values.

Unique Variant Images

Only generate unique image URLS when required

FeedPerfect will generate unique image paths to images for Product Variants. These will always be generated as unique image URL's for Apparel & Accessories when you have color, material, or pattern mapped.

For categories that Google does not require a unique variant image, FeedPerfect will repeat the main product image URL.

If your products only have sizes, the main product image will be repeated with "Only generate unique image URLs when required" selected.

Always generate unique image URLs when possible

If you have unique images for all the variants of your products based on color, material and pattern, you may choose this option. FeedPerfect will generate a unique image URL for each combination of color, material and pattern.

Note: FeedPerfect is not creating images. When the feed is created, FeedPerfect will generate a unique image path based on the Image Directory Path, product id, and option values for that variant.

You will need to add a directory path and choose a file extension. Images for the variants must be saved to those locations, with the auto-generated names in order for Google Product Search to find them.

The Image Directory Path can be any location where you are saving the images. Creating these images can be time consuming and is only required at this time for Apparel & Accessories when the options on your store contain colors, materials, or patterns that represent the product in different variants.

Once you have your image location set, click Save Image Location.

Your feed will not change until you modify your Channel Mappings. If you need to create images, it is strongly recommended that disable the auto-publish before proceeding.

Activating the Product Variant Settings

To activate the settings, go to Channel > Settings Button and edit. From the mappings tab, select the field that you have mapped for variants, i.e. size, color, material, or pattern.

Select (Product Variant) size as a Primary or Alternative field in the field assigment.

Once you have all the variant fields mapped as Primary or Alternative fields, Save the page. FeedPerfect will now generate the feed for Google with Product Variants.

You can disable the auto-generation of Variants by undoing the settings on the Channel > Settings > mappings tab.

Preview Your Feed and Test

Before you submit to Google's production environment, you should validate your feed and dowload the results file. Go to Channel > Settings and click "validate" next to the Google Product Search US. If the file generates successfully you can download the file from the Channel Validation Results. It is strongly recommended that you use this file to upload to Google's Test environment before publishing it to production.