Maelezo
Microsoft Copilot now helps people shop: it suggests products, compares them and, for US stores, lets shoppers buy right in the chat. Those products come from Microsoft Merchant Center, the same product catalog that powers Bing shopping results and Microsoft Shopping ads.
PilotStocked is a Microsoft Merchant Center feed plugin for WooCommerce. It checks your whole catalog against Microsoft’s product attribute rules, shows exactly what to fix, and publishes a feed URL that Merchant Center downloads on a schedule. Set it up once; the feed stays fresh on its own.
Readiness check
- Store checks: HTTPS, store currency, privacy policy, terms and return policy links, product structured data (works with Yoast SEO and Rank Math), and whether the feed URL opens.
- Product checks on every product and variation: title, description, main image and its size, regular price, brand, GTIN (UPC, EAN, ISBN) length and check digit, all-caps titles, long titles and descriptions.
- Variants: each variation needs a color, size, material, pattern, gender or age group so Microsoft can tell them apart. The check lists the ones that have none.
- Clothing: mark your clothing categories and the check looks for color, size, gender and age group, which Microsoft requires for apparel.
- Problems are grouped, with links straight to the products that need work.
Feed in the Microsoft format
- One XML file (RSS 2.0, the Google-formatted XML that Merchant Center accepts).
- A private feed URL for Merchant Center’s scheduled download. No manual uploads.
- Rebuilt twice a day, or on demand with one click.
- Variations become separate items with a shared item_group_id.
- Regular and sale prices with sale dates, availability, condition, gallery images, brand, GTIN, optional MPN from the SKU, and identifier_exists when an item has no identifiers.
- Color, size, material, pattern, gender and age group from your product attributes. Values like “Men” and “Women” are converted to Microsoft’s values.
- Category path as product_type.
- Shows when the feed was last downloaded from outside, so you know Merchant Center picked it up.
Merchant Center helper
A checklist of what to have in place, the steps to add the feed in Merchant Center, and ready answers for the store and feed forms, taken from your store.
Good to know
- There is no product limit.
- Being in Merchant Center makes products eligible. It does not guarantee that Bing or Copilot shows them.
- Microsoft currently opens Copilot checkout to English-language stores that sell to US buyers in USD. The feed and the readiness check work for any store.
- The plugin does not send any data to Microsoft or to us. Merchant Center downloads the feed from your site after you add the feed URL there.
PilotStocked is not affiliated with or endorsed by Microsoft. Microsoft, Bing and Copilot are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies.
Screenshots
Installation
- Install and activate WooCommerce.
- In WordPress, go to Plugins > Add New, search for “PilotStocked” and click Install, then Activate.
- Open WooCommerce > PilotStocked and click “Check my store”.
- Fix the problems the check finds, then open the “Microsoft feed” tab, click “Generate now” and copy the feed URL.
- In Microsoft Merchant Center, create a feed that downloads the file from that URL on a schedule.
FAQ
-
How do I get my WooCommerce products into Microsoft Copilot?
-
Copilot and Bing shopping read products from Microsoft Merchant Center. Create a Merchant Center store in your Microsoft Advertising account, verify your website, and add the PilotStocked feed URL as a scheduled feed. The “Merchant Center” tab walks you through each step.
-
Do I need a Microsoft Advertising account?
-
Yes. Merchant Center lives inside Microsoft Advertising (Tools > Merchant Center). Creating the account is free; you do not have to run paid ads to submit products.
-
Is this the same as a Google Shopping feed?
-
The file format is the same Google-formatted XML, but Microsoft has its own rules, for example all-caps titles and the attributes it needs for variants and clothing. PilotStocked checks your catalog against Microsoft’s rules. You can keep your Google feed plugin next to it.
-
How does the feed get to Microsoft?
-
Merchant Center downloads it. You paste the feed URL from the “Microsoft feed” tab into a Merchant Center feed with a daily schedule. The plugin rebuilds the file twice a day, so each download gets fresh prices and stock.
-
Is the feed URL safe?
-
The URL contains a long random code and is not linked from your site. It tells search engines not to index it. If the URL got out, click “Create a new URL” and paste the new one into Merchant Center; the old one stops working.
-
Where does the brand come from?
-
From Products > Brands (WooCommerce 9.6 and newer), then from a product attribute you choose in Settings, then from the “Default brand” setting. Use the default brand only if you own the brand of these products.
-
My products have no GTIN. Can I still use it?
-
Yes. Microsoft needs GTIN, brand or MPN only when the manufacturer assigned them. Items without them are sent with identifier_exists = FALSE. Handmade and own-brand products are fine.
-
Does it work with Yoast SEO or Rank Math?
-
Yes. The markup check understands their structured data. If a theme or plugin removed WooCommerce product markup, you can turn it back on in Settings.
-
Is it compatible with High-Performance Order Storage?
-
Yes. The plugin does not read or change orders.
Reviews
Hakuna hakiki za programu-jalizi hii.
Wachangiaji & Wasanidi
“PilotStocked – Microsoft Merchant Center & Copilot Product Feed for WooCommerce” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.
Contributors
Interested in development?
Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.
Changelog
0.1.1
- All admin output is escaped on output; helper HTML goes through wp_kses() with an allowlist.
0.1.0
- First version: readiness check against Microsoft Merchant Center rules, XML feed with a scheduled-download URL, Merchant Center helper, settings.