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Is there a standard way of transferring product data between e-commerce web sites?

I presume there are several cases where a company wishes to include another companies products inside its store. How then would this be accomplished?

I presume an XML feed would the way to go, but is there a standard for something along the lines of product name, product code, stock levels, colour options, image filename, price, discount eligibility etc?

I know Magento uses XML to import/export products but is this based on a recognised standard?

Jon Winstanley
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I don't know if there is something specific for e-commerce web sites. But definitely, there's something more general to do EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) among businesses. The standard is defined by a NPO called GS1. Look on their website for a standard named EAN-UCC XML.

Pablo Santa Cruz
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The good news is YES there is eCommerce XML standards. But the bad news there are like 20-30 standards exists... So technically it is not a standard since no real agreement between the existing millions of WebShops around the world.

But there are very popular ones so you can use the top most ones and your site should be at least playing well with some part of the eCommerce sites.

XML Variants probably popular during this time: cXML, adML, ebXML

  • cXML: commerceXML: Designed to facilitate communication between many different companies and different eProcurement systems.
  • adsML: A business to business eCommerce advertising standard to communicate between newspapers, advertising agencies and broadcasters
  • BeerXML: A standard for exchanging data amongst breweries
  • ePUB: A common open e-book standard to work across a multitude of e-readers
  • RailML: A standard for the railway industry to communicate specifications.
  • Many others... XML can take many forms, but the one most commonly seen in the eCommmerce space is appropriately,
Major
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