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Topic Questions

System Questions

How reliable is this service?

Our submission technology has been running continuously since early 2003, just after Froogle's inception in late 2002. Our secure, dedicated hosting is provided by Pair Networks. We process millions of listings daily.

Does your system support any shopping cart/e-commerce platforms besides Yahoo Store?
We have the capability to add new platforms much more easily now. Please contact us to request other platforms.
What shopping price comparison engines does your system submit to?
We now support a multitude of engines and can easily support more. Please see Comparison Shopping Engine Data Feeds Available for a list of supported engines.
Does your system support legacy Yahoo stores?
Yes, we fully support legacy stores. Just supply the objinfo.xml URL and leave the catalog.xml field blank when you set up your feed. Our system even supports a workaround so that you can create custom attributes for your legacy store.
How do I set up my NexTag merchant account?
  1. Login to your NexTag Merchant Account.
  2. Under "Product Listings", select one of the following:
    • "Edit Submit Product Options" and click "Continue" to use the product file upload method.
    • Otherwise, "Set Listing Options" if you had previously selected the product file upload method.
  3. Select "NexTag" as the file format.
  4. Select "Upload a Product File to NexTag's server"
  5. You may see a message indicating that you have to contact NexTag Seller Support to obtain the upload instructions. Please do so.
  6. Click "Convert" or "Update" to save the settings.
  7. Enter the FTP username/password into the Modify Settings page for your data feed.
  8. You may need to enter the FTP Initial Directory, usually like "/private/clientid", in the Advanced Settings page. First try leaving it blank, and if you get permission denied errors, then add the setting.
  9. Run a submission from our system and check the "Nextag > Product Listings > Product File Quality" page for the status in 24 to 48 hours.
Can you submit my eBay listings to Google Product Search?
Google no longer accepts eBay product listings directly from eBay sellers. You must rely on the automatic data feed provided by eBay, which you can sign up for with the eBay export listings program.
Do you support Amazon data feeds?

We do support data feeds to Amazon. Please be aware that Amazon has three different programs through which you may submit your item listings:

  • Amazon Product Ads - Allows you to post your product listings as pay-per-click ads on Amazon's main website.
  • Selling on Amazon - Allows you to sell your items directly on Amazon's main website.
  • Amazon WebStore - Allows you to create a full e-commerce store with your own domain name, akin to a Yahoo Store.

We provide a Basic data feed for Amazon Product ads. This is easy to set up and works like all of our other data feeds.

For Amazon's other merchant programs (Selling on Amazon and WebStore), we can provide you a quote to create an Advanced data feed for your store. Please keep in mind the following caveats:

  • Amazon's data feed requirements are much more complex, and generally require a custom-developed data feed specific to your product category.
  • Amazon generally requires UPC code and/or ASIN codes for every product.
  • Amazon does not accept data feeds via FTP upload. Therefore, you would have to generate the data feed file on our site and upload it manually to Amazon. (This may be automated in the future.)
How do I set up Amazon Product Ads?
  • Log into Amazon Seller Central
  • Go to Products > Use FTP
  • Generate Credentials if necessary
  • Copy the FTP username/password to the feed settings in our system
  • Submit the feed from our site.
  • Check the Products > Download Product Report page for the status of the upload.

If you need information about or assistance with Amazon Product Ads, please contact:

Tino Romero
Account Executive
Channel Sales Business Development
Amazon Services LLC - An Amazon.com Company 
Phone: 206-266-4434
E-mail: tromero@amazon.com
Why am I receiving Low Credit Notice emails?

Once your credit balance goes below the notice threshold in your profile (default $5.00), our system emails you periodically to add credit to your account. Once you add credit, the notices will stop being sent.

If you would like to stop receiving reminders without adding credit, change your account status to "Inactive" from the change account status page. You can reactivate your account from the same page in the future.

Accounts are automatically deactivated after 180 days.

To change your low balance notice threshold, simply edit your profile.

Do you support automated monthly billing?

Unfortunately, at this time, we do not support automated monthly billing. Instead, our system will email you Low Credit Notices once your balance becomes low. Just click the link in the email to add funds to your account. You can configure the low credit notice threshold from your profile.

How do I set up feeds to the shopping engines?

Below is an overview of the steps required to set up data feeds to the various shopping engines.

  1. Check our Supported Feeds page to see if we support the shopping engine.
  2. Click the 'Merchants' link there, and sign up for a merchant account with the shopping engine. (Please contact us if we do not support a particular site.)
  3. You may have to make a minimum purchase or meet other requirements of the shopping engine.
  4. Once your merchant account is approved, check our Support page for feed setup instructions for the engine, if available.
  5. Add the feed to your Aten account from 'My Account > Add Feed', configure any fields as needed, and then run your first submission.
  6. Contact the shopping engine or check your merchant account dashboard to see if the feed was processed correctly.

If you get stuck on any step, feel free to contact us. If you would like optimization/set-up assistance, you can submit an Express Setup Request, and we take care of the feed setup. You would still be responsible for obtaining the merchant account, configuring your merchant account, managing bids, etc.

How do I setup my Become.com Merchant account?
  1. Login to your Become.com Merchant Account and go to the Product Listings tab.
  2. Select ‘Option1 : Feed upload’.
  3. Specify the IP address as: 76.75.210.45
  4. Click the ‘Save Changes’ button at the bottom.
  5. Note the FTP username and password.
  1. Login to our site and add a feed using the Become.com template.
  2. Copy the FTP username/password into the settings.
  3. From the Define Fields page, enter the appropriate category for your products from the Become.com CPC Rate Card.
  4. Define any other fields as needed.
  5. Submit your feed.
How do I set up a GoShopping data feed?
  1. Visit GoShopping.com and register for a Merchant account.
  2. Wait for GoShopping to approve your account.
  3. Login to your GoShopping Merchant account and use the provided code to add a logo to your Yahoo Store home page.
  1. Login to our site and add a feed using the GoShopping template.
  2. Enter the objinfo.xml URL and optionally, the catalog.xml URL.
  3. Click 'Update' to save the settings.
  4. Go to "Manage Feed > Download Data Feed File".
  5. Select the "File URL" setting and copy it for later use.
  6. Use the link to generate a data feed file if it does not exist.
  7. Login to your GoShopping Merchant account and go to the "Your Products > Add Products" page.
  8. Paste the File URL in the "Enter your feed file URL" box, and click "Add Products". Do not select a platform.
  1. After a day or two, log back into your GoShopping Merchant account
  2. Go to the "Your Products > Add Products" page.
  3. Check the "Products Status" section to see if the products are approved.
How do I set up a Commission Junction (CJ.com) data feed?
  1. To set up your Commission Junction feed, you will first need to gather the following three numeric identifiers from your Commission Junction publisher account.
    CID - Account number (ID - CID) with Commission Junction
    In the top-right corner of your CJ account, next to the "Account:" label.
    SUBID - Subscription ID for transfer
    Go to the "Account > Services" page of your CJ account. Look for the "Import" service of type "Product Catalog", and find the ID number in the "Name (ID)" column.
    AID - Product Catalog Ad ID number
    Go to the "Manage Links > Links" page of your CJ account. Look in the "Link ID" column of the "Product Catalog" type link.
  2. Go to "My Account > Add Feed"
  3. Enter your store name, select the Commission Junction Template, and click 'Create Feed'
  4. Continue to "Manage Feed > Modify Settings"
  5. Enter your store export URLs and the CJ FTP username and password.
  6. Click "Update" to save your settings.
  7. Go to "Manage Feed > Advanced Settings"
  8. In the "Extra Header" box, replace the three "12345" numbers with the actual identifiers from your Commission Junction account. Do not change anything else in the header.
  9. Click "Update" to save your settings.
  10. Run a Submission task from "Manage Feed > Submit a Task"
  11. Check your e-mail in 1-6 hours to see if cj.com processed all the items.
How do I set up a TheFind data feed?

TheFind is a comparison shopping engine with about five million unique visitors per month, on par with Shopping.com and Shopzilla. The best part is that just like Google, there is no charge for their merchant program. This is a great way to promote your Yahoo Store products for free.

  1. Create your TheFind merchant account.
    1. Go to TheFind Merchant Center and follow the instructions to create a Merchant Account.
    2. Make sure to follow the instructions to 'Verify' your store.
  2. Create your product feed settings.
    1. Log into your TheFind Merchant Account.
    2. Click on the store name to go to the dashboard for that store.
    3. Click on the 'Product Feed Upload' menu item.
    4. Enter the following settings and click 'Save'.
      • "Feed Format" = TheFind
      • "File Type" = .zip
      • "Email Me" = Always (You can change this to 'Only with Error' once it is working.)
      • "Email Address" = your email address
      • "Upload Method" = FTP Settings
  3. Set up FTP settings.
    1. Click on the 'Product Feed Upload' menu item again.
    2. Click on the "FTP Settings >" button at the bottom.
    3. Enter an FTP password and click 'Setup My FTP'. Here is a random password for your convenience: 7nddxx7
  4. Add a feed in your Aten account.
    1. Go to 'My Account > Add Feed'
    2. Enter your store name, choose the 'TheFind' template, and click the 'Create Feed' button.
    3. Configure the feed settings from 'Manage Feed > Modify Settings'
    4. Enter export Urls and enter the FTP username/password you created in section III, and click 'Update'.
    5. Go to the 'Tasks > Submit a Tasks' menu and click the 'Submission' button.
  5. Check your TheFind merchant account in three business days to see if they successfully processed the file. Note that they do not guarantee that any or all of your products will be listed.

For more information on TheFind, you may find the links below helpful.

Can I downgrade an Advanced feed to a Basic feed?

It is not possible to directly downgrade Advanced feeds due to the possible customizations they may have. However, you can simply add a new, Basic feed for that store and shopping engine. Configure this new feed based on the Advanced feed. Once you are done, you can delete the Advanced feed.

Can I backup or download all my store images?

Please use the following instructions to download all your Yahoo Store images to your computer. These instructions are preliminary and subject to change.

First, configure your data feed.

  1. From 'Manage > Advanced Settings', set Image Hosting to Enabled.
  2. Wait approximately one hour for your image hosting data to be loaded.

Next, prepare a folder and download the images.

  1. Create a new folder on your computer, e.g. 'images'.
  2. Open the URL http://ih.atensoftware.com/12345/download-images.bat in your web browser. Replace '12345' with your FeedId, which can be found in your browser's address bar when you click on the Manage Feed page.
  3. Use your browser's File > Save As function to save the file to your images folder.
  4. Download wget.exe and save this file also in the images folder. This program is a free download tool for Windows.
  5. Double-click the "download-images.bat" file, and the images will begin downloading.
  6. If you receive a "security warning", just click "Run".

Below are some notes about how this works.

  • You must be using a computer with the Windows operating system.
  • The batch file and wget.exe must be in the same directory. You can also copy wget.exe to your c:\windows\command folder, to make it globally available on your computer.
  • If you need to get your latest images, just get the latest 'download-images.bat' file and run that one
  • You can stop and restart the batch file, and it will pick up where it left off. It will not re-download images if they already exist and they are up to date.
How do I set up a WholesaleCentral.com data feed?

We offer a WholesaleCentral.com data feed for your Yahoo Store. We recommend that you configure this feed to be uploaded daily to WholesaleCentral. Currently, WholesaleCentral requires you to log into their site and click a button for the feed to be processed. You will have to do this periodically, so we recommend that you bookmark the Submit Feed Page.

  1. Sign into your WholesaleCentral Seller Account.
  2. Click on the EZFeed link.
  3. Click on "Register your store", select "Use non-Wholesalecentral.com store", and enter your store details.
  4. Go back to the EZFeed page, click "FTP Account", and create an FTP username/password.
  5. After you submit your first feed from our system, go to the EZFeed page again, click the Submit New Data Feed link, and click the "SUBMIT DATA FEED" button.
  1. In our site, add a feed using the WholesaleCentral.com template.
  2. Enter the necessary settings, including the FTP settings you defined above.
  3. Run a submission from our site.
  4. Check your Wholesalecentral account's 'Submit New Data Feed' page for the status of the submissions.
  5. You must click the "SUBMIT DATA FEED" button on that page for the listings to go live.
What is the IP address of the server?

The IP address of our server is 76.75.210.45. This is the origin IP from which data feed files are be uploaded. A few shopping engines, such as ShareASale, require this IP address for restricting access to upload to their FTP server.

How is quantity pricing or minimum order quantity handled?

"If your items are sold in bulk, you must list the total price for the minimum purchasable quantity. For example, if a user must purchase a minimum quantity of ten items, you should include the total price for ten items (the minimum purchasable quantity)." Source: Google Merchant Center, Requirements for the "price" attribute.

Our system always submits the single item sale price for the lowest order quantity. The minimum purchase quantity is usually one, and for this scenario, submitting the sale price works fine. If it is greater than one, then we can usually program a workaround for this too.

How do I set up a Facebook Shoptab Data Feed?

Facebook ShopTab can accept a Google Base data feed file. However, you need to enable Image Hosting in order for it to work. Image hosting service is provided at no extra cost.

Enable image hosting from "Manage Feed > Advanced Settings". Wait about half an hour and resubmit your feed to ShopTab. Image hosting will rewrite the URLs so that they all end in JPG. The URLs will be on ih.atensoftware.com, and will redirect to the actual images on your site. That will be sufficient for ShopTab.

How do I define categories for Unbound Commerce feeds?

To set up your categories for UnboundCommerce mobile commerce data feeds, please use the examples below.

DESCRIPTION                     :   SAMPLE CATEGORY
Top-Level Category              :   Nike Shoes
Category and Sub-category       :   Shoes > Nike
Category and Sub-categories     :   Shoes > Nike > Slip-on
Multiple Categories             :   Nike Shoes|Running Shoes
Multiple Categories (example 2) :   Shoes by Brand > Nike|Shoes by Type > Running

Tips

  • Use the '>' greater-than character to separate category levels.
  • Use the '|' pipe character to separate multiple categories.
  • Keep category names short to conserve space on the mobile screen.

Legacy Stores

If you have a legacy store, you can embed the category information in an HTML comment inside the Caption field of each product. Add the code shown below to the bottom of every Caption, and change the category as appropriate.

<!--
<uc-category>Shoes by Brand &gt; Nike|Shoes by Type &gt; Running</uc-category>
-->

Remember to replace the '>' greater-than character with '&gt;' to ensure that the HTML code remains valid. For more information, see How do I add custom attributes to a legacy Yahoo store?

Why do I see the message, "Store information no longer available"?

Sometimes, you may see the message, 'Store information no longer available', for one or more tasks in the "View Tasks" page. You will see this message when you have recently deleted a feed from your account. Deleting the feed deletes all the feed settings and results, but the task history will be preserved in your account. The tasks and messages will drop off the page after seven days.

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