Feed Uploads

A product feed is the catalog of products your assistant can recommend. This article covers the ways to get products into a feed and the actions for managing each feed once it exists.

Before you start

You'll manage feeds from the Products page. If you don't have a feed yet, you'll see an empty state with buttons to get started; once you have at least one feed, you'll use the New Feed menu to add more.

Find your feeds

The Products page opens on a table of all your feeds. Each row shows the feed's Name, Source, number of Products, Linked chats, and when it was last Updated. A feed that no chat uses shows Not used by any chat.

Screenshotthe Products page feed table, with one row showing "Not used by any chat" and the "Link to chats" action

You can sort the table by any column: Name, Source, Products, Linked chats, or Updated. Click the sort button next to a column's name. The first click sorts ascending and the second sorts descending. A third click puts the feeds back in their original order.

Click a feed to open its own page. From there, use All feeds to go back to the table. To switch to another feed, open the dropdown that shows the current feed's name and pick a feed.

Add a new feed

Open the New Feed menu and choose a way to bring in products.

Screenshotthe Products page with the New Feed menu open, showing "Upload CSV", "Upload XML", and "Import from URL"

Option 1: Upload a CSV

1. In the New Feed menu, choose Upload CSV.
2. Pick a CSV or TXT file from your computer. You can also drag and drop a file onto the upload area or click browse files.
3. The file uploads and your products are organized automatically. You can keep working while it processes.

Notes:

• Supported file types are CSV and TXT. The maximum file size is 200MB.
• Not sure how to format your file? Use Download Template (available on the empty Products page) to start from a correctly-structured file.

Option 2: Import from URL

Instead of uploading a file, you can point VWAM at a website and let it discover products for you.

1. In the New Feed menu, choose Import from URL.
2. In the Import from Website dialog, enter the website address (for example, example.com), then click Import.
3. VWAM scans the site and builds a product feed for you. This can take a little while — you'll see a Scanning website… indicator while it runs.

Screenshotthe "Import from Website" dialog with a URL entered

For help when a scan finds too few products or misses items, see the Product Scraping article.

Upload an XML feed

Choose Upload XML, select your file, and review the detected fields before confirming the mapping. If you close the dialog before confirmation, use Map columns in the feed's import status to resume.

Link a feed to chats

A chat recommends products only from the feed it's linked to. After you import a new feed, a Link to chats dialog appears so you can link the feed right away. You can also open it later with Link to chats in the feed table, either from a feed's row or from its actions menu.

1. In the dialog, check each chat that should use this feed. Chats with no feed are checked for you. Each chat shows the feed it uses now, or no feed.
2. Click Link. The button shows how many chats you've selected, for example Link 2 chats. To close the dialog without linking, click Skip.

Screenshotthe "Link to chats" dialog with one chat checked and a "Replaces ..." line under it

Good to know:

• Linking replaces a chat's current feed. If you check a chat that already uses another feed, the dialog shows which feed it replaces. It also shows how many welcome products and fallback products are cleared, because those come from the old feed.
• Changes apply when you publish. Linking updates each chat's draft. Shoppers see the new feed after you publish that chat.

Check import progress

The selected feed shows its latest import status below the feed selector. Progress survives a page reload. See the rows opens available error samples. After a failed import, check the current products before importing again.

When an import ends, you can close its banner with the close (X) button. This works for Import finished, Import finished with failed rows, and The import failed. Closing hides the banner for that feed in your browser only. The banner comes back for the feed's next import. There's no close button while an import is still running or waiting for you to map columns.

Edit products

Click a product row to open its edit panel. Each field saves separately. You can also click a title, brand, or price in the table, then press Enter to save or Escape to cancel. A failed save keeps your value and shows the reason.

Use Show them to view products missing an image, price, or description. To hide this warning, click its close (X) button. It stays hidden for that feed in your browser until the number of affected products changes. The close button isn't shown while you're viewing those products. Click Show all products to go back to the full list.

Status and issue filters narrow the table; Columns controls the visible fields.

The Sells? switch controls whether the assistant can recommend a product. To stop several products, select their checkboxes and choose Stop selling. Shopify controls selling status for connected feeds.

Before changing a SKU: the next import may create a second product instead of updating the existing one. A later import or Shopify sync can overwrite manual edits.

Add a single product by hand

To add one product without uploading a whole file, select the feed you want, then click Add Product. Fill in at least a Title (required); you can also set a description, price, currency, SKU, brand, a redirect URL, and an image. Click save to add it to that feed.

Manage an existing feed

Select a feed, then click the three-dot Feed actions button next to the feed selector. In the feed table, each row has its own three-dot menu with Link to chats, Rename, Duplicate, Set as default, and Delete.

Screenshotthe selected feed and its separate Feed actions menu

From that menu you can:

• Rename — change the feed's name.
• Duplicate — create a copy of the feed, including its products.
• Set as default — make this the default feed. (This option is hidden for a feed that is already the default.)
• Export CSV — download all products in the feed as a CSV file.
• Replace Feed — delete every product in the feed and replace them with a fresh CSV upload (see below).
• Delete — remove the feed. (The default feed can't be deleted — set another feed as default first.)

The default feed cannot be deleted. Shopify feeds do not offer Replace Feed.

Replace a feed's products

Replace Feed swaps out a feed's entire contents in one step:

1. Open the feed's actions menu and choose Replace Feed.
2. A confirmation appears warning that this deletes all products in the feed and replaces them with a new CSV upload. Your chat configurations that use this feed aren't affected.
3. Click Choose File and select the CSV (or TXT) file to import.

Note: feeds connected to Shopify can't be replaced this way — the Replace Feed option isn't shown for them.