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title: "Academy Article"
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[Go to home](https://academy.laioutr.com/en)

- [Group products](https://academy.laioutr.com/en/bereiche/group-products)

- [Distributr](https://academy.laioutr.com/en/leitfaeden/distributr)

- [Send product data to channels with Distributr](https://academy.laioutr.com/en/artikel/send-product-data-to-channels-with-distributr)

# Send product data to channels with Distributr

Distributr turns the storefront catalogue into one feed per channel and market and publishes it at a fixed feed address that Google, Meta, AWIN, idealo or eBay fetch on their own. Setup happens in Cockpit: create a feed, check the columns, paste the feed address into the channel account.

## Before you start

<dl>

<dt>Plan</dt>
<dd>Distributr licence for the project</dd>

<dt>Role</dt>
<dd>Access to the project in Cockpit with permission to edit Distributr</dd>

<dt>Duration</dt>
<dd>8 min</dd></dl>

### Prerequisites

- Connected commerce backend with products in the storefront
- At least one market with currency and domain
- Account with the target channel, for example Google Merchant Center

Last reviewed on October 15, 2026

**Distributr** sends product data from a Laioutr project to marketing channels: price comparison sites, marketplaces, affiliate networks and social commerce. Each channel and market gets its own **feed**. Cockpit reads the storefront on a schedule, writes the file in the channel's format and publishes it at a fixed **feed address** that the channel fetches on its own.

A feed reads the same storefront visitors see, not the shop system behind it. Products that are hidden, out of stock or priced differently per market appear that way in the feed too. There is no import: the data is already available through Orchestr, and Distributr works in exactly one direction, outwards.

Three things shape the content of a file:

- **Column mapping**: which column carries which value.
- **Field bindings**: where the shop keeps a field such as `gtin` or `gender`, set once per project.
- **Market values**: decisions such as shipping costs, delivery country or separators.

Distributr is not a PIM and not a sync tool. Product data stays maintained in the shop backend or the PIM.

## Step by step

1. 1 ### Step 1: Open Distributr

   Open the project in Cockpit and select **Distributr** in the project sidebar. The list shows every feed with its channel, market and the progress of the last run.
2. 2 ### Step 2: Create a feed

   Select **Create feed** and enter **Channel**, **Market** and **Storefront endpoint**. Leave **Locale**, **Currency** and **Format** empty to use the market's and channel's own values, and set the interval under **Refresh**. Use the specification template rather than the legacy template for new feeds.
3. 3 ### Step 3: Add the feed address to the channel

   Copy the **Feed address** with the copy button and paste it into the channel account as the fetch URL. This works before the first run, and the address never changes.
4. 4 ### Step 4: Check columns and field bindings

   Review **Source field**, **Transform**, **Constant** and **Fallback** in the column mapping. For fields the template only knows by name, set a **Channel input** binding once per project; Cockpit suggests fields the storefront actually returns for a real product.
5. 5 ### Step 5: Set market values and product selection

   Set **Ships to**, **Shipping rate** and **Free above** for the market, otherwise the delivery offer is left out of the feed. Add rules such as in stock, has an image or minimum price, plus an exclusion list by SKU where needed.
6. 6 ### Step 6: Run the feed

   Start the feed manually from the list or its own page and confirm. Large catalogues take a few minutes and a started run cannot be stopped; afterwards the feed regenerates on its refresh interval.

## Check the result

After the run, open the run log: it lists empty required columns, columns only the channel account can fill, duplicate IDs and links that are not full addresses. Then open the feed address in a browser, check that the file contains the expected products and confirm the first fetch in the channel account.

## Frequently asked questions

Why are products missing from the feed?

The feed reads the storefront, so hidden products are missing there too. Distributr also counts how many products each rule removed, which shows which rule shrank a feed.

Does the feed address change with every run?

No. Each run only replaces the file behind the address. The address contains a long random token and cannot be guessed from the project or market name.

Does Distributr replace a PIM?

No. Distributr is not a system of record and imports nothing. It only sends out what the storefront already shows; data is maintained in the shop backend or PIM.

Why is an idealo column called "decription"?

Templates follow the channel's published specification, including column names that look misspelled. Correcting them would break the import on the channel side.

## Related

- [Set up markets, currencies and domains](https://academy.laioutr.com/en/artikel/set-up-markets-currencies-and-domains)7 min

  A market bundles name, currency, flag and the domains visitors use to reach a storefront. Markets are created in the project under Markets, and each domain gets a language from Translations.

## Learn it in a lesson

- [Send product data with Distributr](https://academy.laioutr.com/en/lektionen/frontend-manager-distributr-in-daily-work)8 min

## [Distributr](https://academy.laioutr.com/en/leitfaeden/distributr)

Search this guide

1. [Send product data to channels with Distributr](https://academy.laioutr.com/en/artikel/send-product-data-to-channels-with-distributr)8 min

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