Update Snippets for Product Feeds

Update Snippets for product feeds is about changing live shopping modules without touching your templates. In Affiliate.com, a snippet is a reusable block that renders products, prices, availability, and merchant calls to action from your saved queries and Comparison Sets. When you update the snippet, every placement that uses it refreshes automatically.

This article shows how to update snippets safely, why deduplication and identifiers keep comparisons honest, and how to run a quick production checklist so your product feeds stay accurate after every change.

What an update really changes

A snippet update modifies presentation, product selection, or business rules while the embed code remains the same. You can swap products, change layouts, turn on Short Names, adjust colors, or switch sort. The underlying product data still comes from indexed fields such as brand, barcode, MPN, price, discount, currency, and availability, so your governance and integrity rules persist.

The card above represents a typical live snippet. We will update it without touching the page template.

Where to manage live snippets

Open Manage Snippets in your Affiliate.com account. The table lists every snippet that has been created and added to a Channel. You can sort by last updated or filter by layout to find the one you want to modify. Click a row to open the editor.

Editor controls you will use most

Inside the editor you can:

• Change layout, for example Price Comparison versus Single Product
• Toggle Short Names to condense long titles
• Swap products by editing the linked query or Comparison Set
• Adjust colors and button labels
• Set sort to price, discount, or last updated
• Control deduplication to show a single canonical SKU or all offers

Press Update Snippet to push changes to every placement where the snippet embed exists.

How product selection flows into the snippet

Snippets inherit their products from a query or a saved Comparison Set. That is where integrity is controlled.

• Identifiers for exact matching: use barcode, SKU, MPN, or ASIN so the same item is matched across merchants even when titles differ.
• Pricing logic: final price, regular price, sale price, and sale discount drive real savings logic and let you sort credibly.
• Availability: in stock, stock quantity, and availability prevent dead clicks.
• Governance: network name or ID and merchant name or ID restrict results to approved partners.
• Breadth and precision: any or name for discovery, brand and category for precision.

When you update the snippet, you are rendering the latest results of those rules.

Fast workflow to update a live product feed

1. Open the source selection. If your snippet points to a Comparison Set, open the set and click View Query. Otherwise edit the linked query directly.
2. Normalize the selection. Add identifiers where possible. Barcode is ideal for cross merchant comparisons.
3. Layer pricing and deal logic. Set currency to your market, ensure final price is present, and add a minimum sale discount if you are curating deals.
4. Filter for availability. Set in stock equals true and add a sensible stock quantity floor if needed.
5. Decide presentation. Turn deduplication on for clean lists of unique SKUs. Turn it off to show every merchant offer for a single barcode in a Price Comparison layout.
6. Save and preview the snippet. Confirm sort and Short Names.
7. Publish the update. Click Update Snippet. All embeds refresh automatically.

Before and after example

The final view shows the same snippet with updated copy, button styling, and a revised product set. The embed code did not change. Your live Channel refreshed instantly after you pressed Update Snippet.

Production safeguards for teams

Use this checklist whenever you update snippets tied to product feeds.

• Are identifiers present so you compare identical products, not lookalikes
• Do prices reflect both regular and sale where relevant so discounts are credible
• Is currency scoped to your market and are cross currency merchants excluded unless intentional
• Are merchants and networks restricted to your approvals via ID filters
• Is deduplication configured to match the layout and story you are telling
• Are items in stock at time of writing, verify in the live UI
• Is sort aligned to intent, discount for deals, price for value, last updated for freshness

Try it out!