When to Integrate Basic Product Content with XML/JSON and Rich Content with Icecat Live

The Icecat database contains more than 10 million product datasheets with different digital assets in more than 60 languages. These digital assets include product titles, marketing texts, specifications, and images, and also rich media assets like videos, 360 images, and enhanced content such as product stories.

If all this information is stored directly on your server for thousands of products, it might get too heavy and cause issues such as increased loading time. However, there are various integration formats available to integrate the Icecat product content. After registering, users can download the content in XML/JSON, CSV, or insert it as HTML via Icecat Live. Of course, each integration format has its advantages and drawbacks and is better suited for a particular type of content. In case that your company doesn’t have a rich media server, Icecat advises implementing different asset types in the following way:

How to integrate Icecat product content?

		– Easy to integrate within 1-2 hours – Beautiful rich content with 100% approved content that generates conversion – No hosting required
		– Easy to integrate for smaller product portfolios – Easy to edit – Small in size – Save data in a table structured format – Store all data and media on your own server
		– Flexible content options, but more time consuming to integrate – Easy to combine with other integration options – Suitable for PIM/PDM/CMS systems – All rich media assets are available to download separately – Store all data and media on your own server

Sometimes, it is beneficial to combine several methods, even for the same content type. For example, let’s look at the specifications. In some product categories, there can be hundreds of different specifications for a single product. If all of these are stored in the backend for hundreds or thousands of products (via XML/JSON), it increases the complexity of the taxonomy in your Product Information Management backend. Instead, you can only use XML / JSON for these specifications, which your customers can filter on in the front end. And, the rest can be implemented using the Icecat Live JavaScript. 

Vittorio Marino

Key Account Manager Italy