WebToffee WooCommerce Product Feed & Sync Manager plugin allows you to sync your WooCommerce products with Facebook shops and Google shops (merchant center). The plugin allows generating Facebook/Instagram product feed and Google feed that can be used to upload products into the Facebook catalog and Google merchant center respectively, thereby making the products available for user searches.

With the plugin, you can choose from two options to sync products with Facebook shops.

1. By creating feed
2. By direct sync achieved by connecting your Facebook account with the store.

Features offered

Major features offered by the WebToffee WooCommerce Product Feed & Sync Manager plugin are the following:

• Create Facebook/Instagram feed, Google shop feed
• Attribute mapping
• Category mapping
• Category filter (include & exclude)
• Auto feed refresh intervals (daily, weekly, monthly)
• Direct sync with Facebook shops
• Multiple product filter options (filter by product category and tags)
• Choose from long/short product description
• Category mapping
• Batch sync
• View product sync log for detecting failed syncs and troubleshooting

Installation

You can refer to the article How to Install a Free Plugin to learn about the installation process of the plugin. On installation WebToffee Product Feed menu is added as shown in the image below.

Pre-requisites

• Create the necessary business accounts with Facebook or Google shop. You can create a Google shop page from here.
• Use this reference to view the product fields that will be synchronized via this plugin.

Product feed Configuration

Product feeds are managed through three tabs. They are,

• Create new feed
• Manage feeds
• General settings

Create new feed

This page allows you to configure a new product feed in four steps and they are:

• Creating new feed
• Attribute mapping
• Category mapping
• Generating feed

Step 1: Create a new feed

In this step, the user can create a new feed for Facebook/Google. The basic feed settings are configured in this step. The image shows configurable options in step 1.

• File name – Unique name given to the feed.
• Country – Allows choosing a country for the feed.
• Channel – Allows users to create feeds based on channel. Different channels will have different requirements in terms of product data, structure, etc. The available options are Facebook/Instagram and Google shopping.
• Exclude product categories – WooCommerce categories that should be excluded from the list.
• Auto-refresh – Choose from available options to enable automatic feed refresh.
  • Daily
  • Weekly
  • Monthly
  • Manual (The feed won’t be auto-refreshed. You will have to manually refresh the feed by navigating to the Manage Feeds section within the plugin).

Step 2: Attribute mapping

Store owners can choose the corresponding WooCommerce field for the Facebook/Google product field on the left side. The Attribute mapping page of the Facebook shop is given below.

Step 3: Category mapping

Store owners can choose the corresponding Facebook/Google category for the WooCommerce categories in their store. The category mapping page of Facebook is shown below.

Step 4: Generating feed

This is the final step in creating the feed. The image shows the final step configurations which generate the feed. Here we specify the batch size and delimiter.

• Process in batches of – Sets the number of products to be processed at each iteration while generating the feed.
• Delimiter – Allows setting the separator for differentiating the columns in the CSV file. Assumes ‘,’ by default.

Manage feed

This page allows store owners to manage the existing feed and offer several other options. The image shows the manage feed page.

• Copy URL – The URL point to the product feed created. This can be copied and pasted into the Facebook or Google business account to establish the feed.
• Refresh -This option allows refreshing the feed manually. If the intervals don’t match users’ specific requirements, they can update the feed manually whenever they want.
• Download – The feed can be downloaded by clicking this link. The files can later be uploaded to the Business account.
• Edit – The feed settings can be updated by clicking on this button. Such as feed interval.
• Delete – The feed can be deleted by clicking on this link.

General settings

This page allows setting the default options. The image shows the general settings page.

• Default feed batch count – Sets the default number of products to be processed at each iteration while generating the feed.

Adding Additional fields to the feed (Google and Facebook)

You can add custom fields such as color, size, age group, gender, unit price, etc via creating custom fields and mapping them to the corresponding Google/Facebook attribute.

Here is how it’s done.

Suppose you want to add an additional field ‘age group’ to your google feed.

First, you need to go to the product’s edit page (in which you want to add the field/s).

Now, you may map the custom field within the attribute mapping section while creating the feed.

Facebook product sync configuration

Facebook catalog sync is an alternate method to sync your WooCommerce products with Facebook shops.

With this method you don’t have to copy and paste the feed URL. This method works by allowing you to perform on demand sync using which you can sync products whenever any update is made to the products in your store. The changes will be promptly reflected within Facebook shops therefore eliminating the need to rely on Facebook fetch frequency.

Steps to sync WooCommerce products with Facebook.

Step 1 – Login to your Facebook account

Login to your Facebook account in which you have set up your Facebook shop.

Step 2 – Allow permission for WebToffee product feed & Sync manager plugin

Click the Connect Facebook button and allow permission for WebToffee product feed & Sync manager plugin.

Step 3 – Choose the business account/FB shop

If you have multiple business accounts/Facebook shops, it is necessary to choose the account/shop you wish to sync products.

Step 4 – Click ‘Continue’

Now you have established connection with your Facebook shop. You can get started with syncing products with Facebook shops.

Step 5 – Filter products

In this step you may filter products you wish to sync with Facebook catalog using different criteria.

First, you need to choose the fb catalog you wish to sync your products (if you have multiple catalogs associated with your business account)

Exclude product categories – You can use this filter to exclude specific categories from syncing with Facebook catalog. You may search and add one or more categories.

Only include specific categories – You can use this filter to only include specific categories in the sync. You may search and add one or more categories.

Exclude product tags – Using this filter you can exclude products associated with selected tags.

Product description type – It is required to send either short or long description to Facebook. You can choose which one should be sent.

Products per batch – It is the number of products that will be processed in a single iteration. You can increase or decrease the value based on your server performance. If you are not sure about it, leave it to the default.

Step 6 – Category mapping

You may map the store categories to that of Facebook/Google categories. You may save the mapping once done.

Furthermore, you can edit the already mapped categories for Facebook by going to the category edit page. Product level category mapping is also possible with the plugin.

Step 7 – Click the button Map FB categories and Sync

Once the sync is completed, click the Check fb catalog button to redirect to the catalog in your FB business account.

There you can view the synced items in your catalog.

View detailed log

Logs section records the product sync status. It provides reasons for failure to sync if any, besides each record.

Log records are used for debugging purposes. In case of any product sync failure, you can refer to the log file by clicking on View Status. 

Conclusion

WebToffee WooCommerce Product Feed & Sync Manager is a simple plugin that allows you to auto-sync your WooCommerce store with Facebook Shops and Google shops/merchant center. When it comes to Facebook shops the plugin lets you sync your store either via feeds or through direct sync.

Steps to download, install and activate WebToffee plugin

Step 1: After purchasing the plugin, go to the My Account section in WebToffee. Log in with your credentials. Navigate to Downloads from the dashboard.
Step 2: Click Downloads to get redirected to My Downloads. Click on the plugin package ZIP file to get it downloaded into your system.
Step 3: After downloading the ZIP file, navigate to Dashboard > Plugins and click on Add New.
Step 4: In the window that appears, Click on Choose file to browse the plugin ZIP file.
Step 5: Choose the ZIP file and click open.
Step 6: Click Install Now.
Step 7: After installing, proceed to activate the plugin.
Step 8: Get your API Key and API Email from the My Account > License Keys tab in WebToffee.
Step 9: Navigate to the plugin’s general settings window. Click on the Licence tab.
Step 10: Enter the API License Key and Email. click on Activate button.