Importing your product data feed into alby

The Product Catalog is a collection of products in your inventory and includes information on those products, such as prices, images, URLs, created date, and other attributes. This information is used within alby to generate questions and product recommendations.

Prerequisites

Ensure that you have set up an SFTP connection with alby. See this article.

After successfully establishing an SFTP connection, verify that a folder named feeds exists. If it does not exist, create the folder with the exact naming. You must place the CSV file in this folder for the review import process to activate.

File Structure

There are two concepts of products within alby: product variants and their parent product.

Product variants represent the different versions of a single item, each identified by a unique External ID (external_id). For instance, a shirt available in red, green, and blue colors will have three distinct variants, each with its own External ID.

The parent product, distinguished by a Item Group ID (item_group_id), serves as the overarching identifier for the item. Using the previous example, the shirt in all its color options is considered one parent product.

This structure establishes a hierarchical relationship where one parent product encompasses multiple variants.

Importing guidelines

Product feeds sent to alby must include a header row for each column in the file followed by the specific detail records that should be imported by alby.

📘
Each row in your CSV file represents a variant, unique identified by a External ID (external_id). These variants are grouped using a Item Group ID (item_group_id).

Example Filename

Brand_ProductCatalog_YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS.csv

alby requires following the above example for product feeds.

CSV File Requirements

alby will attempt to auto-detect and use the appropriate delimiter, it is advisable to use the standard comma delimiter. To ensure complete and accurate ingestion into the alby platform, all submitted CSV files must adhere to the following requirements:

Format: Files must be in either a flat file CSV format or a compressed CSV.GZ file. (Excel XLSX files are not supported). A CSV.GZ file is preferred.
Encoding: All files must be UTF-8 compliant.
Header Row: Files must contain a header row that defines the columns.

Required Columns

You can view a sample file here.

Field	Type	Description
external_id	string	The unique identifier for the variant, known as the external_id, must match the ID used on the website. It should not exceed 128 characters.
item_group_id	string	The unique identifier for the product, known as the item_group_id, must match the ID used on the website. The item_group_id is a grouping identifier for each row in the file. It should not exceed 128 characters.
title	string	The title/name of the product. Product names should not have any line breaks.
price	float	The price of the product should be provided. If decimals are not included, they will be automatically added by alby. The default currency is USD, but you can specify other currencies by adding an additional currency column. The currency must comply with ISO 4217 standards.
link	string	The URL where the product can be viewed or purchased. This must be a valid and well-formed URL.
description	string	The product description is a detailed and comprehensive text that is crucial for the functionality of alby's AI features. This description should be as robust and thorough as possible, encompassing all relevant details, benefits, and specific attributes of the variant-level product.
image_link	string	The image_link is a URL that points to the image of the product variant. Ensure the link is accurate and accessible, as it will be used to display the product image within alby.
category	string	Optional, but recommended for alby to properly operate Product Advisor actions in Playbooks.

By following these guidelines, you can ensure that your product feed is correctly uploaded on the alby platform.

Previous Article	alby Getting Started Guide	Next Article
Setting up SFTP access		Provide alby the most up-to-date documents on your products