Would you like to link your online store to Spotler? In that case, synchronizing products is a feature that will be of particular interest to you. By synchronizing products real-time, you will be able to compose a newsletter in Spotler with no more than a handful of clicks. If you are also applying contact synchronization, your newsletter can be sent within just a couple of minutes.
Spotler eCommerce
Especially for this purpose, Spotler has developed the product Spotler eCommerce. In Spotler eCommerce, synchronized products from your online store are presented in a product catalogue. When you add a product to your newsletter the product link, image, description, and price are automatically included in the newsletter and displayed with the correct layout.
Segmentation and automated campaigns
Synchronizing products from the online store is also important for segmentation purposes and automated campaigns in Spotler. Using the Spotler List Manager, you can compile a target group containing all customers who have purchased a certain product in the past. In addition, products can be included in the email messages belonging to various automated campaigns, such as the Abandoned Shopping Cart campaign and the Product Review campaign.
Insert, update and delete products
When a product is added to or edited in the online store, these changes should also immediately be applied in Spotler. A product review submitted to the online store also counts as an edit, that is to say an edit to the average product rating. If a product is deleted from the online store, it must also immediately be deleted in Spotler. Deleted products will be marked with the status deleted in Spotler. In order to preserve the order history, products are never fully deleted.
Technical documentation
Insert a product (optionally with update=true)
Update a product
Delete a product
Get a product
Properties of a product
You can read which product properties can be synchronized in the technical documentation.
A number of product properties call for additional explanation:
Product prices
As mentioned earlier, product synchronization includes the product price. Two types of product price can be synchronized. The price (the price including any discount that may obtain), and the oldPrice (the price without the discount). The oldPrice should only be synchronized when there is an actual discount in place. This is because both prices can be displayed alongside the product in the newsletter. Both prices must be synchronized with VAT included.
Images
Accompanying the product, a URL leading to the product image must also be synchronized in two different formats. We recommend the following dimensions for these two formats: imageUrl 145 x 145 pixels, and imageLargeUrl 185 x 185 pixels. These formats are in accordance with the most frequently used newsletter templates. However, there will always be Spotler eCommerce clients who use formats that deviate from the norm. Therefore, it is best to keep these formats adjustable within the connector without the help of a developer.
Brand name
Synchronizing the brand name along with the product helps marketing professionals find the relevant products to include in the newsletter. In addition, the marketing professional can then also segment by brand name. For instance, to select all contacts who have in the past purchased products developed by a specific brand.
Language
If an online store is multilingual and offers product names and product descriptions in multiple languages, a separate product must be passed to Spotler for each language. Marketing professionals will, after all, wish to send customers products in the language appropriate to that customer. If the structure of the online shop is determined by the multilingual features, we recommend storing this structure in its entirety in the language field, using for instance SPACE-SPACE between the levels. This value is exclusively meant for the marketing expert using Spotler will not be shown in the newsletter.
Link to the Product Review page
The marketing proffesional also has access to the Product Review campaign in Spotler eCommerce. Some time after a purchase is made, this campaign automatically sends an email to a customer asking them to share their opinion about the purchased product(s). To ensure that this automated process runs smoothly, the URL linking the product review page for a product should be available in Spotler. This generates more traffic to the online store. Additionally, research shows that online stores generate more revenue when products have been reviewed by customers.
Average grade of product rating
In cases where it is possible to submit a product rating in the online store, it might be useful to know that you can also use this grade in Spotler. Each time a product is rated (and in certain cases when the submitted rating has been accepted by the manager of the online store), the new average grade attributed to the product should be synchronized to the existing product in Spotler. The product is rated along a 0 to 5 scale. Spotler automatically converts this grade to an image that can be displayed alongside the product in the newsletter.
Would you like to use a custom styling? Synchronize your own image of the product rating with the ratingImageUrl. This image can then be displayed alongside the product image in the newsletter.
Supply in stock
When selecting products to include in the newsletter it is of use to marketing professionals to know whether a product is properly stocked. A marketing professional may want to leave products that are no longer in stock, or very low in stock, out of the newsletter. The exact amount of products left in stock is of little interest in this case. Therefore, when synchronizing products it is only necessary to include whether the stock is GOOD or LIMITED. This limits the number of transactions made within the connection. Only when the stock drops below a certain minimum should the status LIMITED be synchronized. The default value in Spotler is UNKNOWN.
Visibility of a product in Spotler
All products should be synchronized with Spotler in order to keep the order history intact. Per product, you can indicate whether it should be visible in Spotler or not. If the product is made invisible (visible=false), the product will not be available to the marketing professional to place in the newsletter. For products consisting of a main product and various subjacent product varieties, the subjacent products should be synchronized, but typically with the invisible status. For instance, products that are available in different colours or sizes.
Product specifications
Would you like to add additional information alongside the general product properties such as name, price, and image? You can synchronize a list of product specifications. This is a list of one or more product properties for which the configuration may differ per product. In the red frame below you can see an example of product specifications.
Product category
A product category can also be synchronized for any product. This option enables the marketing professional to look up products more easily when selecting content for the newsletter. If the product is ascribed a category that has an extensive underlying structure, we recommend storing this structure in its entirety in the category field, using SPACE-SPACE between the category levels, for example. This prevents the incorrect attribution of products to the same category in Spotler.
Link ‘add to shopping cart directly’
Some online stores allow customers to add a product to the shopping cart directly after clicking through to the store via the newsletter. To enable this option, synchronize the URL for the link addToCartLink.
GTIN and SKU
GTIN stands for Global Trade Item Number (this can also be an EAN number). SKU stands for Stock Keeping Unit, a product reference number that does not need to adhere to a standard and is commonly used in online stores. It is not obligatory to synchronize both product properties, but it may help the marketing professional when looking up products in Spotler. It is also possible to display the GTIN and SKU alongside a product in the newsletter.