Backfilling automatically updates products with existing data from the Central Product Database (CPD). It’s especially useful when integrating with systems that lack complete product details, such as POS systems that only provide a barcode, price, and stock.
Backfilling ensures consistent product information across multiple sellers by applying CPD data to adverts and variants linked to Golden Records.
Updates run at regular intervals and are applied based on each seller’s configured backfill policy.
The Central Product Database backfills or propagates these data points for linked adverts and variants. Please note that the attributes backfilling are different for adverts and variants created via M-Connect, more details can be found here.
Advert/Product
- year
- title
- gender
- tax_code
- taxon_id
- brand_id
- metadata
- sale_type
- description
- external_ids
- specifications
- youtube_video_id
- origin_country_code
- recommended_retail_price (only if wholesale pricing is enabled)
- measurement units
- images
- option values
- item tax percentage
- product features
- TGA enabled
- variants (missing variants are added if any of the golden product variants are not linked to an advert's variant.)
Variant
- metadata
- tax_code
- item_size
- external_ids
- comparable_size
- shipping_parcel
- shipping_profile_id
- recommended_retail_price (only if wholesale pricing is enabled)
- measurement units
- images
- item tax percentage
- All TGA fields
- option values
Backfill policy
Each seller can have a different backfill policy, which can be accessed within the Marketplacer.
To update a seller’s backfill policy:
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Go to Manage Sellers.
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Find the seller you want to update and click the edit icon.
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Scroll to the ProductDB section.
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Update the backfill policy as needed, then click Save.
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If the backfill policy for a seller is set to Never, then backfill does not update that seller's products. The Never option is the default setting.
If set to Only If Missing, then backfill only populates the data that does not exist.
If set to Always, backfill overwrites everything and replaces it with data from the product database. Additionally, backfill can be set up to automatically publish adverts after they have been populated with valid details.
Manually trigger backfill
Updates to Golden Records do not automatically backfill to the source seller’s advert unless backfill is manually triggered.
To do this:
- Enable backfill for the source seller.
- Make the required update to the Golden Record.
- Trigger the backfill using the Backfill button from the Golden Record’s View screen.
- Disable backfill if needed afterward.
Golden Record updates are asynchronous, so changes may take a short time to appear on the seller’s product.
This addition clarifies operator expectations when editing Golden Records manually.
Learn more to change which seller’s data is used for backfill.
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