Add your feed to a Pinterest catalog

A Pinterest catalog turns your products into product Pins and feeds Pinterest shopping ads. The Pinterest profile writes RSS 2.0 with the g: namespace, one item per variant, within Pinterest’s limits: ID up to 127 characters, title 500, description 10,000, up to 10 additional images.

Before you start

Pinterest lists these requirements for retail catalogs:

• A Pinterest business account. The first data source must be added by the account owner.
• Your website claimed in Pinterest, and the Pinterest tag installed.
• A store that meets Pinterest’s merchant guidelines: easy-to-find contact details, a shipping policy and a refund policy.

Catalogs are not available in every country.

1. Create the feed in Buinbu

1. Open Export and choose Create feed.
2. On Feed templates pick Pinterest (search for it, or Show all channels and Create).
3. Under Feed name and market keep or change the Feed name, pick the Market (country) you sell to on Pinterest and keep Currency on that market’s currency. If the market’s currency differs from the one the channel needs, the run fails with Currency mismatch and the file is not updated.
4. Under Product selection keep Leave gift cards out on and leave out-of-stock products in: Pinterest shows them as out of stock.
5. Under Filters tick any saved filters, for example one with field templates for titles.
6. Set the Refresh frequency; your plan sets the shortest interval (plans). Choose Create feed.

2. Copy the feed URL

The feed page opens with “Feed created. The first file is being generated.” Under Feed URL choose Copy URL. The URL never changes, needs no login and is not limited by IP, which is what Pinterest requires of a hosted file.

3. Add the data source in Pinterest

1. Log in to your business account on a computer, open the menu at the top left and, under Manage business, choose Catalogs and product groups.
2. Choose Add data source and open the Provide URL link tab.
3. Fill in the form:
   • Name: any name, for example the feed name.
   • Feed URL: the URL from step 2.
   • File format: XML.
   • Country/region: the feed’s market. It cannot be changed later.
   • Language: the language of your product texts.
   • Feed login details: leave empty.
   • Default currency: the feed’s currency.
   • Scheduled ingestions: turn on and pick a time after your feed’s refresh.
4. Optionally use Test your data source with a sample, then choose Create Pins.

4. Wait for the first ingestion

Pinterest ingests a hosted data source once every 24 hours and does not offer on-demand ingestion for it. It e-mails you about the result, and the catalog’s diagnostics page shows progress. In Buinbu the feed page reads “Last fetched: … · Pinterest” once Pinterest has downloaded the file.

How fields map

Pinterest attribute	Shopify source	Notes
id	Variant SKU, else shopify_ plus the variant ID	Up to 127 characters
title	Product title plus variant name	Up to 500 characters
description	Product description as plain text	Up to 10,000; the title when empty
link	Online Store URL with the variant parameter	Products must be published to the Online Store
image_link	Variant image, else the first product image
additional_image_link	Other product images	Up to 10
price, sale_price	Variant price in the feed’s market; compare-at price as price when higher	449.00 TRY; items priced 0 are left out
availability	Inventory	in stock, out of stock, preorder (product tag preorder); backorder is written as in stock
item_group_id	Product ID	Shared by a product’s variants
brand	Vendor	Optional on Pinterest
gtin, mpn	Valid barcode; SKU when there is no barcode
condition	new
product_type	Shopify product category, else product type
google_product_category, custom_label_0 to 4	Field templates	Not written without a template
color, size	Options named Color/Colour/Renk and Size/Beden/Boyut
shipping_weight	Variant weight	When above 0

Common problems

Symptom	Cause	Fix
Catalog failed ingestion	A required field is missing or malformed	Open Pinterest’s diagnostics; compare with Issues in the last run
Products missing in Pinterest	Left out as Not published on the online store or No image	Fix the product in Shopify or the feed’s market
Prices in the wrong currency	Default currency differs from the feed’s	Create a feed per market and a data source per country
No “Last fetched” line	Pinterest has not ingested yet	Wait up to 24 hours after creating the data source

More cases: Feed rejected or products flagged.