Checking product data for compliance before it goes live
Selling a product online means publishing information you are responsible for: safety warnings, materials, age restrictions, energy labels, country of origin. When that information comes from dozens of supplier price lists, gaps are inevitable. One supplier sends full specifications, another sends a name and a price. Without a check in between, incomplete listings end up in your store and on marketplaces.
What "compliance" means for a catalog
For most stores it comes down to a few practical questions about every product:
- Are the attributes required for this category present? Electronics may need voltage and certification marks, toys need an age range, cosmetics need ingredients.
- Are restricted words or claims missing from titles and descriptions? Medical or "eco" claims, for example, often have strict rules.
- Do marketplaces accept the listing? Each channel has its own required fields and formats.
- Is the product allowed in the country you ship to?
The legal requirements themselves depend on your market and category, and they are worth reviewing with a specialist. What can be automated is checking that every product has the data those requirements call for.
Turn requirements into data rules
Write the requirements down as simple rules per category:
- "Category Kids' toys: age range is required."
- "Category Small appliances: voltage and warranty period are required."
- "All categories: title must not contain the words cure or guaranteed."
Rules like these are easy to check against a structured catalog, and they make it clear to the whole team what a complete product looks like.
Where the check belongs
The right moment to check is between import and export. Supplier data arrives, gets matched and enriched, and only then goes to the store. If the check happens after publishing, customers see the problem first.
In YfiFX, supplier price lists from all sources end up in one Master price list with a common set of fields. That makes it practical to see which products in a category lack required attributes, fill them in once, and keep them filled: because product links between suppliers and your catalog are created once, the next import does not overwrite your work. Missing photos and specifications can also be looked up automatically.
Keep a short review loop
- Import and match supplier data.
- Filter products in each category by missing required attributes.
- Complete the data, or exclude the products from export until it is complete.
- Repeat for new products after each import.
Done regularly, this takes minutes rather than days, and it prevents the much more expensive problems: blocked marketplace listings, returns, and complaints from customers who did not get the information they needed.
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