For your Shopping Assistant to function correctly, from product recommendations through to add-to-cart and sales tracking, a single product identifier must flow consistently across four distinct integration points. Any discrepancy between these identifiers causes malfunctions: product not found, failed add-to-cart, or incorrect conversion attribution.

This article centralises the unification constraints that must be strictly followed during your integration.

Principle: one identifier, four integration points

iAdvize uses the product identifier as a join key between its various components. The value defined in the product catalogue is the absolute reference: it must be reproduced identically across the three other integration points.

The four points concerned are:

The product catalogue: id field
The custom data product_id : sent via the GTM tag or the main iAdvize tag on the product page
The transaction tag: product identifiers transmitted at the time of purchase (via products[].id in manual integration, or via the dataLayer in GTM)
Add-to-Cart: identifier transmitted to the native API of your e-commerce platform

⚠ If the identifier used in the catalogue does not match the one expected by your e-commerce platform for add-to-cart, the Add-to-Cart feature will not work. Check this as a priority during your integration.

1. The product catalogue: defining the reference value

Role of the `id` field

The id field in your product catalogue is the reference identifier. This is the value the iAdvize system uses to find and display the product page in the Assistant.

It must be unique per product (or per variant, depending on your business logic).
It is defined when your feed is indexed (CSV, Google Shopping XML, Lengow, SmartFeeds, Channable…).
Once assigned to a product in the catalogue, this identifier can no longer be reused for another product.

Note In a CSV file, this field is labelled id. In a Google Shopping XML feed, it corresponds to the <g:id> tag. Regardless of the import method, the value must be identical to the one transmitted across the other integration points.

Special case: variant management

If your catalogue is structured at the variant level (size, colour, format, etc.), the id must correspond to the identifier of the variant, not the parent product.

Tips: on Shopify, the identifier to use in the catalogue is the Shopify Variant ID (not the parent Product ID). This is the only identifier that the Shopify API accepts for add-to-cart via /cart/add.js. This constraint therefore applies to all four integration points described in this article.

2. The custom data `product_id`: signalling the product being viewed

On every product page of your site, the iAdvize tag must receive the identifier of the product currently being viewed by the visitor. This information is transmitted via custom data.

The system uses this value to match the product being viewed with the corresponding entry in the catalogue. If the values do not match, the Assistant cannot access the product information and the engagement notification cannot be personalised.

The transmission method depends on your integration approach:

Manual integration: the custom data product_id is included directly in the main iAdvize tag.
→ Integrate the main tag manually
GTM integration: the custom data product_id is transmitted via the dedicated "iAdvize - Custom Data tag".
→ Install iAdvize via Google Tag Manager

Note The default key used is product_id. It must match the configuration set in your iAdvize knowledge source (the "Product identification" field when creating the source). If you use a different key, make sure that your knowledge source configuration is aligned accordingly.

3. The transaction tag: measuring conversions

Role in sales attribution

For iAdvize to attribute sales generated after a conversation with the Assistant and identify which products were purchased, the product identifiers transmitted at the time of the transaction must match those indexed in the catalogue.

The transmission method depends on your integration approach:

Manual integration: product identifiers are transmitted directly in the transaction tag, via the products[].id array of the iAdvize.recordTransaction() method.
→ Integrate the transaction tag manually
GTM integration: the "iAdvize - Transaction tag" template transmits only the order identifier and amount. Product identifiers are captured automatically by the main iAdvize tag, which monitors the dataLayer and extracts products from the GA4 purchase event (field ecommerce.items[].item_id). No additional configuration is required.
→ Install iAdvize via Google Tag Manager

⚠ Regardless of the integration method, if the product identifiers transmitted during the transaction do not match those indexed in the iAdvize catalogue, sales will not be attributed to the products recommended by the Assistant. The iAdvize sales report will be incomplete.

4. Add-to-Cart: passing the identifier to your platform

When a visitor clicks the "Add to Cart" button in a conversation with the Assistant, iAdvize triggers a JavaScript callback on your site. This callback receives the productId of the recommended product — i.e. the value of the id field defined in your product catalogue.

Your callback implementation is responsible for passing this identifier to the add-to-cart API of your e-commerce platform.
→ Add-to-Cart installation guide

The identifier transmitted by iAdvize via the productId is the one indexed in the catalogue. Your e-commerce platform must be able to accept it as-is for the add-to-cart to work.

⚠ If your e-commerce platform does not accept the identifier defined in your catalogue (for example because your catalogue uses a parent Product ID whereas the platform expects a Variant ID), add-to-cart will fail systematically. You must ensure that the identifier indexed in the catalogue is the one expected by your add-to-cart API.