Use this article to learn what options you have to integrate your product images into the tRS Service and decide which one best suits your needs.
About
tRS supports several methods for integrating with your product images into the service. The value of integrating your product images is pretty clear but in your insights portal, several pages are designed to analyse product performance with the product image which is proven to aid quicker analysis and uncover new patterns in the data that would not be as clear as text based reports such as colour, style or packaging trends.
Please note: tRS does not physically store or host your product images. Images must be stored in repository with a public facing URL meaning that the address of the image file could be presented via any browser if it was pasted into the address bar.
If the image address is not a public facing URL then it will only be visible to your team when they are logged into your network.
Options
Please see below the common ways product images are set up into your tRS Service
1. Shopify Integration
If you use Shopify, then most common and recommended method is for tRS to connect directly into Shopify via their API
2. From your ERP
If you store the product image URL in your ERP, tRS can bring this information in however, for this to be effective, the product image must be a public facing URL as opposed to a stored file inside your Network.
3. From an external file
If your images are stored outside of the above two options such as an ecommerce platform like Comestri or Cloudinary then you will have to ask your ecom team to set up an extract that routinely (eg fortnightly) produces a file in the following format that is emailed to support@theretailscore.com or can be uploaded by your team.
The template will look like this when populated:
The row and column structure is as follows:
In summary, the rows are the style code and colour and the image URL.
Warning: The downside of this approach is that it can be very manual and if you are updating your product images often, then it is recommended to seek out an automated solution as much as possible.