ShareASale is an affiliate network in the United States for small to medium size advertisers. ShareASale is the only network in the United States that does not allow affiliates to utilize desktop software to promote advertiser offers (such as browser toolbars and similar tools). ShareASale provides product data feeds via FTP to affiliates free of charge, but the advertiser has to enable feed access to affiliates manually and pay a nominal $1 activation fee per affiliate (one-time fee). The product data feed provided by ShareASale has the following format and structure:
Format: Delimited
Column Delimiter: Pipe/Vertical Bar
Row Delimited: CR + LF (Windows Line Break)
Text Qualifier: None
Header Row with Column Definition:
ProductID|Name|MerchantID|Merchant|Link|Thumbnail|BigImage|Price|RetailPrice|Category|SubCategory|
Description|Custom1|Custom2|Custom3|Custom4|Custom5|LastUpdated|status
Notes:
The Information for a product will be in a single line. The Line break in the example was only added for display purposes. The Download via Web Interface has the Header Row included and the (your) Affiliate ID is already encoded in the Link. The Feeds via FTP do not have the Header Row. Also the Links require the replacement of the string: YOURUSERID with the (your) ShareASale Affiliate ID.
To learn about the meaning of the columns in the feed, have a look at the Feed Definition for Merchants below.
It is very similar to the feed provided to Affiliates, because it is basically the basis for the Affiliate Datafeed.
There are three ways to access datafeeds through ShareASale.com.
1. File Download via the ShareASale.com Website
2. FTP Download via the ShareASale FTP Server
3. Real Time XML feed for Premier Affiliates
Check out the free PHP and MySQL database automation script by Shawn "mobilebadboy" Kerr to ftp download feeds and import them into MySQL automatically on a frequent basis.
| Column Order | Data | Data Type | Max Length | Null Value Allowed | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | SKU | Text | 255 characters | No | Mandatory Unique Value |
| 2 | Name | Text | 255 characters | Yes | Product Name |
| 3 | URL | URL | 255 characters | No | Direct URL to the product |
| 4 | Price | Numeric | 2 decimal places | No | Product Price |
| 5 | RetailPrice | Numeric | 2 decimal places | Yes | "Retail" or "List" price |
| 6 | Full Image | URL | 255 characters | Yes | URL to product full size image |
| 7 | Thumbnail Image | URL | 255 characters | Yes | URL to product thumbnail image |
| 8 | Commission | Float | Yes | Dollar amount of product commission (do not enter in a commission percentage). This will not affect the tracking or the actual commission rewarded on the sale, and is only for a quick reference for the affiliate. | |
| 9 | Category | Integer | No | Product Category - see ShareASale defined category numbers below | |
| 10 | Subcategory | Integer | No | Product Subcategory - see ShareASale defined subcategory numbers below | |
| 11 | Description | Text | No character limit | Yes | Product Description |
| 12 | Search Terms | Text | 255 characters | Yes | Comma separated list of product search terms |
| 13 | Status | Text | 255 characters | Yes | Stock Status.
|
| 14 | MerchantID | Integer | No | Your ShareASale MerchantID is 2123 | |
| 15 | Custom1 | Text | 255 characters | Yes | Any extra data you would like to add. Your own category/subcategory information is highly recommended. |
| 16 | Custom2 | Text | 255 characters | Yes | Any extra data you would like to add. Your own category/subcategory information is highly recommended. |
| 17 | Custom3 | Text | 255 characters | Yes | Any extra data you would like to add. Your own category/subcategory information is highly recommended. |
| 18 | Custom4 | Text | 255 characters | Yes | Any extra data you would like to add. Your own category/subcategory information is highly recommended. |
| 19 | Custom5 | Text | 255 characters | Yes | Any extra data you would like to add. Your own category/subcategory information is highly recommended. |
Art/Media/Performance Subcategories
Auto Subcategories
Books/Reading Subcategories
Business/Services Subcategories
Computer Subcategories
Electronics Subcategories
Entertainment Subcategories
|
Fashion Subcategories
Food/Beverage Subcategories
Gifts/Specialty Subcategories
Home/Family Subcategories
Metaphysical Subcategories
Personal Care Subcategories
|
Sports/Outdoors Subcategories
Toys/Games Subcategories
Travel Subcategories
|
See the 
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