Doudlah Farms Product Data Consolidation

Overview

Doudlah Farms maintains product data across multiple platforms — Amazon (FBA), the DFO website, and Google Merchant Center — but historically this data has been fragmented across separate spreadsheets maintained by different stakeholders. This fragmentation caused Google Merchant Center feed errors, inconsistent pricing, and missing product attributes that blocked Shopping ad eligibility.

The resolution is a single master spreadsheet that serves as the authoritative source of truth for all product data, regardless of channel.

See also: ^[1] | ^[2]

The Problem

During the 2026-03-18 weekly call, Mark identified that the Doodle Farms Product Data spreadsheet was outdated and incomplete, causing downstream errors in Google Merchant Center:

• Missing product sizes (e.g., Emmer had only the 5 lb entry; Blue Haven had only 1.5 lb)
• No data for Spelt at all
• Out-of-stock products were missing price fields, which caused feed rejection errors
• Weight values were being sent without units of measure (e.g., 2 instead of 2 lb), triggering Shopping feed errors
• UPC/GTIN values were formatted incorrectly (missing the leading 00 prefix required for GTIN-14)

A secondary spreadsheet — maintained by Lucy (client-side) — contained some of this missing data but lacked columns for ASINs and other fields required by the agency's systems.

The Solution: Master Product Data Spreadsheet

All product data should live in one master spreadsheet with tabs covering:

Key Rules

1. Every product must have a price, even if out of stock. Missing prices cause Merchant Center feed errors.
2. UPC → GTIN conversion: Prepend 00 to the 12-digit UPC to produce a valid GTIN-14 (e.g., UPC 012345678901 → GTIN 00012345678901).
3. Weight fields must include units (e.g., 2 lb, not 2). The WooCommerce/feed plugin does not append units automatically.
4. Do not create products in Merchant Center before inventory exists. Placeholder listings with no stock or price degrade feed quality scores.
5. Lucy's sheet is a pricing input, not the master. When Lucy sends price updates, those values should be reconciled into the master sheet — not treated as a separate source.

Current Feed Status (as of 2026-03-18)

Doodlah Farms Feed

• 63 products in Merchant Center
• 7 not approved — all are legitimately out-of-stock SKUs (alternate sizes not yet in production); no structural errors
• Store quality: rated "awesome" by Merchant Center
• Known gap: no returns policy (food product); this limits the store rating ceiling but is intentional

Old World Feed

• 2 products visible: 1 under review, 1 showing "limited" discoverability
• "Limited" status is likely a two-stage approval process (first reviewer → limited; second reviewer → approved)
• Expected to be fully live within 1–2 days of the call
• Mark to investigate the "limited" discoverability flag

Action Items

• [ ] Gilbert: Consolidate Lucy's sheet into the master Doodle Farms Product Data spreadsheet — update ASINs, SKUs, UPCs, dimensions, and pricing for all products (@Gilbert Barrongo)
• [ ] Mark: Research why the Old World Merchant Center listing shows "limited" discoverability (@Mark Hope)
• [ ] Team: Do not create new Merchant Center product listings until physical inventory exists

Related Notes

• The WooCommerce feed plugin used for Doodlah Farms does not fully handle all required Merchant Center attributes; some fields (e.g., weight units, GTIN formatting) required manual API correction by Mark. This is a known limitation to account for on future feed setups.
• This same single-source-of-truth principle applies to any future e-commerce client with multi-channel presence. See ^[3] (if created).