The Pinterest Feed plugin turns your OrbitCommerce catalogue into a Pinterest product catalogue feed. It generates a CSV file in the format Pinterest expects and serves it at a stable web address, so you can add your products as a data source in Pinterest Business and start showing them as Product Pins and in shopping ads. You choose what goes in the feed, when it refreshes, and how your store categories map to Pinterest's product categories.
Features
- Pinterest-ready CSV feed. Products are exported as a comma-separated file using the column layout Pinterest's data source ingestion expects, including the required fields (id, title, description, link, image link, price and availability) plus recommended fields such as brand, condition, GTIN, MPN, product category, colour, size, material and sale price.
- Variant-aware. Each variant (for example each size or colour of a product) becomes its own row, grouped under the parent product so Pinterest treats them as one product with options.
- Scheduled refresh. Set a feed to regenerate automatically every 30 minutes, hourly, daily, weekly or monthly, so Pinterest always fetches up-to-date prices and stock. You can also generate on demand at any time.
- Default category fallback. Set a default Google product category that is applied to any product without its own category mapping, so no row is left without a category (Pinterest rejects empty or invalid categories).
- Category mapping. Map your store's own product categories to standard Google product categories, which Pinterest accepts as-is, for better organisation and ad targeting.
- Product filtering. Choose whether to include out-of-stock products and whether to export only active products or products of all statuses.
- Sale prices. When a product has a compare-at (was) price higher than its selling price, the feed sends the higher value as the price and the lower value as the sale price.
- Built-in validation. Check a generated feed for missing required fields before you rely on it in Pinterest.
- Multiple feeds. Create more than one feed, for example a separate feed per target country or currency.
Before you start
You will need:
- A Pinterest Business account. If you have a personal account you can convert it or add a free business account.
- A claimed website. Pinterest asks you to claim and verify your store's domain before a catalogue can go live. This is done in your Pinterest Business settings.
- Your storefront URL to hand, so product links in the feed point to the correct pages.
Pinterest catalogues are available in a number of regions and currencies; check that your target country is supported in Pinterest's own catalogue documentation before you begin.
Getting started
- Install the plugin. From the OrbitCommerce plugin store, install Pinterest Catalog Feed. It then appears in your dashboard menu as Pinterest Catalog Feed.
- Create a feed. Open the plugin and choose to create a feed. Give it a name (for example "UK Catalogue"), pick your target country, content language and currency, and enter your storefront URL. Selecting a country pre-fills a sensible language and currency, which you can override.
- Set filtering and schedule (optional). Decide whether to include out-of-stock products, whether to export active products only or all statuses, and whether to enable scheduled regeneration and how often.
- Map categories (optional but recommended). On the feed's detail page, open Product Category Mapping and match your store categories to Google product categories. Products with no mapping fall back to the default category if you have set one.
- Generate the feed. On the feed's detail page choose Generate Now. The plugin reads your products and writes the CSV. Larger catalogues take longer; you can watch progress in the generation history.
- Copy the feed URL. Once generated, the feed has a Feed URL. Copy it using the copy button.
- Add the feed to Pinterest. In Pinterest Business, go to Catalogs, then Add data source, then Hosted file, and paste the feed URL. Pinterest will fetch the file, process the rows and (after review) make the products available for Product Pins and shopping ads.
How the feed works
When you generate a feed, the plugin reads your current product catalogue and writes one CSV file containing a row for every item to be advertised:
- One row per sellable item. A product with no variants produces a single row. A product with variants produces one row per variant, all sharing the same item group so Pinterest links them together.
- Stock and status filtering. If you have chosen active products only, products in other statuses are skipped. If you have chosen not to include out-of-stock items, both whole products and individual out-of-stock variants are left out.
- Prices. Prices are written with two decimal places and the feed's currency code (for example "19.99 GBP"). If a higher compare-at price exists, it becomes the price and the current price becomes the sale price.
- Links and images. Product links are built from your storefront URL plus the product's handle. The first image becomes the main image and up to nine further images become additional images.
- Identifiers. A product barcode that looks like a valid GTIN (8, 12, 13 or 14 digits) is sent as the GTIN; otherwise the SKU is sent as the MPN.
- Categories. Each row is given a Google product category from your category mapping, falling back to the feed's default category where no mapping applies.
- Descriptions. HTML formatting is stripped from product descriptions so the feed contains plain text.
The generated file is hosted at the feed URL and served as a CSV. Pinterest re-fetches that same URL on its own schedule, so each time the plugin regenerates the file (manually or on a schedule) Pinterest picks up the latest version on its next fetch. The URL is cached for up to an hour, so very recent changes may take a short while to appear.
Settings
Each feed has the following settings.
- Feed name. A label to identify the feed in your dashboard.
- Target country. The market the feed is intended for. Choosing a country sets a default language and currency.
- Content language. The two-letter language code (ISO 639-1, for example "en") for the feed content.
- Currency. The currency code used for all prices in the feed (for example GBP, EUR, USD).
- Storefront URL. Your shop's web address, used to build the product links in the feed.
- Default brand (optional). A fallback brand name used for any product that has no brand of its own.
- Include out-of-stock products. When off, out-of-stock products and variants are excluded. When on, they are included and marked as out of stock.
- Product status filter. Export active products only, or products of all statuses.
- Enable scheduled generation. Turn automatic regeneration on or off.
- Generation interval. How often a scheduled feed regenerates: every 30 minutes, hourly, daily, weekly or monthly.
- Product category mapping. Per-feed mapping from your store categories to Google product categories, configured on the feed detail page.
- Default product category. A single Google product category applied to products that have no specific mapping, so every row carries a category.
Troubleshooting
Pinterest reports missing or invalid categories. Pinterest will not accept rows without a valid product category. Map your store categories to Google product categories and set a default category as a safety net, then regenerate the feed.
Products are missing from the feed. Check your filtering. If "include out-of-stock products" is off, anything with zero stock is excluded, and individual out-of-stock variants are dropped even when the parent product is in stock. If the status filter is set to active only, products in other statuses will not appear. Adjust the settings and generate again.
Prices or links look wrong in Pinterest. Confirm the feed's currency matches the prices in your store, and that the storefront URL is correct and has no trailing path. Product links are built as your storefront URL followed by "/products/" and the product handle, so an incorrect storefront URL produces broken links.
The feed URL shows "not generated" or an error. A feed has no file until you generate it at least once. Open the feed and choose Generate Now, wait for the run to complete in the generation history, then copy the URL. Use the Validate Feed button to confirm the required fields are present before adding the URL to Pinterest.
Changes are not showing in Pinterest yet. Pinterest fetches the feed on its own schedule, and the feed URL is cached for up to an hour. After regenerating, allow time for Pinterest's next fetch and processing pass before expecting updates to appear.
Support
For help with this plugin, visit the Orbit Commerce Help Centre, or use the Get support link on the plugin's store page.