What is the Emarsys Product Feed?
The Emarsys product feed is a structured data integration that syncs your product catalogue into the Emarsys email marketing platform. Merchants use this feed to power personalised product recommendations, dynamic email content blocks, abandoned cart campaigns, and product-triggered marketing workflows. Unlike general-purpose feeds for shopping channels, the Emarsys feed is designed specifically to support email personalisation and behavioural marketing at scale.
When you configure an Emarsys product feed, you establish a two-way connection between your product database and Emarsys's recommendation and content engines. The platform uses this data to match products to customer browsing history, purchase behaviour, and segment preferences. Accurate feed configuration directly impacts campaign performance because incomplete or misformatted product data reduces recommendation relevance and blocks dynamic content generation.
Core Feed Architecture and Item Structure
The Emarsys feed operates on a per-item basis, where each product variant or SKU represents a single item record. The feed accepts both CSV and JSON formats, though the field structure remains consistent.
Essential item identification fields:
The item field is your unique product identifier. This must be a stable, non-changing value that Emarsys uses to match product records across feed updates. Use your internal SKU or product ID, not a human-readable name. If you change item values between feed imports, Emarsys treats them as new products, breaking historical data and recommendation models.
The item_group_id field groups variants under a single parent product. If you sell a shirt in three colours and two sizes, each combination is a separate item, but all six items share the same item_group_id. This allows Emarsys to show customers a product group (the shirt) rather than individual variants, improving recommendation clarity and reducing content clutter in emails.
Product Identification and Merchandising Fields
title is the primary product name displayed in email recommendations. Keep titles under 150 characters and include the product type (not just a brand name). Titles like 'Cotton T-Shirt - Navy' perform better than 'Product A' because they provide immediate context in email previews and recommendation blocks.
The brand field segments products by manufacturer and enables brand-level filtering in campaigns. If you sell multi-brand inventory, populate this field consistently. Emarsys uses brand data to create brand-affinity segments and to allow customers to exclude or prefer specific brands in preference centres.
The category field organises products into a hierarchical structure. Use your internal category path (for example, 'Clothing > Menswear > Shirts') rather than category IDs. Emarsys parses this path to build browsing-based recommendation models and to support category-level content personalisation.
description provides the product summary shown alongside recommendations. Limit descriptions to 500 characters and focus on key features and benefits. Avoid HTML markup unless Emarsys has explicitly enabled rich text support for your account. Descriptions without formatting are more reliable for email rendering across clients.
Pricing and Availability Configuration
The price field must be a decimal value in your account's base currency (typically GBP for UK merchants). Include the full selling price, not the discount amount. Emarsys uses this value to calculate total order values in recommendation blocks and to trigger price-based campaign rules (for example, 'recommend products under £50').
The msrp field is the manufacturer's suggested retail price or original price before any discount. When populated, Emarsys can display savings in email recommendations (for example, 'Save £15') which increases click-through rates. Leave this blank if you do not have reliable MSRP data; inaccurate savings claims damage trust.
The available field indicates stock status. Use simple boolean values: 'true' for in-stock items and 'false' for out-of-stock products. Emarsys respects this field when generating recommendations and will deprioritise or exclude unavailable items from email content. Incorrect availability data leads to customer frustration when they click through to find products no longer available.
Visual Content Fields
The image field must contain a direct, publicly accessible URL to the product's primary image. Images should be at least 300 pixels wide and use common formats (JPEG, PNG, WebP). Emarsys downloads and caches images, so ensure the URL remains stable and does not expire. If image URLs change frequently, recommendation blocks fail to render and fall back to text-only content.
The zoom_image field provides a higher-resolution image for detailed product views in email clients that support image expansion. Zoom images should be at least 800 pixels wide and ideally under 200 KB to avoid email size penalties. If you do not provide a zoom_image, Emarsys uses the standard image field, which may appear pixelated when enlarged.
Both image fields must pass basic validation: no broken links, no redirects, and no authentication requirements. Test image URLs directly in a browser before uploading your feed to confirm they load.
Attribute and Segmentation Fields
The c_color, c_size, c_age_group, and c_gender fields are custom attributes that enable granular product segmentation and filtering. These fields are prefixed with 'c_' to indicate they are custom extensions rather than standard fields.
c_color captures the product colour. Use consistent colour naming across your catalogue (for example, 'Navy Blue' not 'Dark Blue' or 'Navy'). Colour consistency is critical because Emarsys uses this field to build colour-preference segments and to allow customers to filter recommendations by colour in preference centres.
c_size stores the product size. Use standardised sizing notation: 'XS', 'S', 'M', 'L', 'XL' for apparel, or numeric values like '8', '10', '12' for shoe sizes. Avoid ambiguous size descriptions. When size data is clean, Emarsys can recommend the correct size variant to returning customers based on their purchase history.
c_age_group specifies the intended age range or demographic. Common values are 'Infant', 'Toddler', 'Child', 'Teen', 'Adult'. This field is primarily used in fashion and toy categories to match products to customer profiles and to support regulatory compliance in some regions.
c_gender indicates the product's gender orientation: 'Male', 'Female', 'Unisex'. This field supports both product-to-customer matching and compliance with advertising regulations in certain jurisdictions. Populate this field accurately; incorrect gender data can result in poor recommendation relevance and potential regulatory issues.
Product Link and Traffic Direction
The link field is the full URL to the product page on your website. This must be a direct product URL, not a category or search results page. Emarsys embeds this link in all recommendation blocks and email content, so accuracy is essential for campaign tracking and conversion measurement.
Link URLs should be stable and not include session tokens or temporary parameters. If your product URLs change (for example, during a website migration), update the feed before the old URLs expire. Broken or redirecting links reduce click-through rates and complicate campaign attribution.
Practical Feed Integration and Optimisation
Feed Upload and Scheduling
Emarsys accepts feed uploads via SFTP, HTTP POST, or direct file upload in the platform UI. For merchants with frequently changing inventory, schedule automatic feed updates daily or multiple times per day. Manual uploads are suitable for catalogues with slower change rates (weekly or monthly updates).
Before your first production upload, validate your feed against Emarsys's schema using a test environment or staging account. Check that all required fields are present, field values match expected data types, and no special characters break the feed parser. Common validation errors include unescaped quotes in descriptions, missing item IDs, and price values formatted as currency strings (for example, '£19.99' instead of '19.99').
Field Mapping for Multi-Channel Operations
If you distribute products across multiple channels (for example, Amazon, eBay, Emarsys), you may need separate feed configurations for each platform. Emarsys field names are not interchangeable with Amazon or eBay field names. Map your internal product database columns to the correct Emarsys field names in your feed generation process.
Use a consistent item ID across all channels to simplify internal tracking, but recognise that each platform may require additional fields or format variations. For example, Amazon requires ASIN and UPC fields that Emarsys does not use. Build your feed generation logic to handle platform-specific requirements without duplicating your product data.
Category and Attribute Standardisation
Category paths must be consistent within your feed. If you categorise a product as 'Clothing > Menswear > Shirts' in one feed import and 'Apparel > Mens > T-Shirts' in the next, Emarsys treats them as different categories, fragmenting recommendation models and segment data.
Define a category taxonomy before building your feed. Document the exact path structure and approved values for colour, size, age group, and gender fields. Share this taxonomy with anyone who updates product data, and validate all new products against the taxonomy before upload.
Image Optimisation for Email Rendering
Emarsys embeds product images directly in email recommendations, so image optimisation affects deliverability and rendering. Keep image file sizes under 100 KB for standard images and under 200 KB for zoom images. Use JPEG format for photographs and PNG for graphics with transparency.
Test images in multiple email clients (Gmail, Outlook, Apple Mail) to confirm they render correctly. Some clients strip images by default, so ensure your recommendation blocks include fallback text (for example, the product title) when images do not load.
Handling Variants and Item Groups
For products with multiple variants (colours, sizes), create separate item records for each variant combination, but assign all variants the same item_group_id. This approach allows Emarsys to recommend specific variants while grouping them logically in recommendation blocks.
Example structure:
- Item: 'SHIRT-001-NAVY-M', item_group_id: 'SHIRT-001', c_color: 'Navy', c_size: 'M'
- Item: 'SHIRT-001-NAVY-L', item_group_id: 'SHIRT-001', c_color: 'Navy', c_size: 'L'
- Item: 'SHIRT-001-RED-M', item_group_id: 'SHIRT-001', c_color: 'Red', c_size: 'M'
When a customer views the Navy Medium variant, Emarsys can recommend the same shirt in other sizes or colours using the item_group_id relationship.
Inventory and Availability Synchronisation
Keep the available field synchronised with your inventory system. If a product sells out but your feed still marks it as available, customers receive recommendations for products they cannot purchase, damaging trust and increasing support requests.
For real-time inventory, schedule feed updates every few hours or integrate Emarsys's API for direct inventory updates. For slower-moving inventory, daily feed updates are usually sufficient. Document your update frequency and communicate it to Emarsys support so they can adjust recommendation logic accordingly.
Summary and Implementation Checklist
The Emarsys product feed is the foundation for effective email marketing personalisation. Accurate, complete product data directly improves recommendation relevance, campaign performance, and customer experience.
Before uploading your feed, verify that:
- All item values are unique, stable, and match your internal product IDs.
- Titles are descriptive and under 150 characters.
- Prices are decimal values in your base currency, without currency symbols.
- Image URLs are publicly accessible, stable, and load in all major email clients.
- Categories follow a consistent hierarchical structure.
- Custom attributes (colour, size, age group, gender) use standardised values across all products.
- Availability data reflects current stock status.
- Product links point directly to product pages and are not session-dependent.
- Item groups are correctly configured so variants are logically related.
Once your feed is live, monitor Emarsys campaign metrics (click-through rate, conversion rate, revenue per email) to identify data quality issues. If recommendation performance drops after a feed update, check for missing images, broken links, or inconsistent category or attribute values.
For merchants managing complex, multi-variant catalogues or distributing across multiple channels, consider using a dedicated product feed management platform or API integration to reduce manual errors and ensure consistency across all feed destinations.