Commerce data overview
The Trade Desk platform supports multiple pathways for bringing commerce data onto the platform. Whether you're a merchant building a product catalog or a data provider looking to monetize purchase and behavioral data with advertisers, this page outlines your options and guides you to the right starting point.
Commerce data onboarding covers three stages—building your product catalog (uploading product data), uploading event data, and managing advertiser access—each with multiple integration methods depending on your infrastructure and goals.
Integration pathways
You can onboard commerce data through three broad approaches: using the platform UI for spreadsheet-based uploads and access management; integrating directly via API for programmatic catalog management, access control, and event ingestion; or connecting through CDPs, product information management (PIM) providers, or other third-party providers if your data already lives in external infrastructure.
Across these approaches, onboarding draws on four integration layers: the Commerce Solutions API for building, managing, and controlling access to your product catalog; CDPs or TTD Connectors (Snowflake, Databricks) for feeding in conversion data from your existing data infrastructure; the Measurement APIs for sending offline or real-time conversion events; and tracking tags (Google Tag Manager, JavaScript SDK) for capturing web and in-app events directly.
NOTE: The Commerce Solutions API requires access permissions in addition to Platform API credentials. If you cannot access any links, contact your Technical Account Manager.
For a full breakdown of each option, see Product catalog integration.
Term definitions
The following table provides high-level definitions of the terms used on this page.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Merchant | A generic term for an entity that interacts directly with consumers across multiple products and seeks to bring its commerce data to The Trade Desk platform, either to use it for advertising purposes or to monetize these assets as a third-party data or measurement provider. |
| Product catalog | A listing of a merchant's products organized by categories and brands. Product information in a catalog requires a minimum of product SKU numbers and names but may also include product categories, URLs, descriptions, brand names, and images. Each merchant can build their own product catalog and share it with selected brands and advertisers for audience building and measurement. For details on using an industry-standard taxonomy or designing a custom one, see Product catalog integration. |
| Product category | A group of products in a catalog that share similar characteristics. Product categories can be as broad as "Groceries" and "Clothing," or as narrow as "Bottled Water" and "T-shirts." Related categories may be organized in a parent-child hierarchy within a catalog. |
| Product list | A group of products from a catalog that an advertiser creates and uses for measurement. |
| SKU | A unique number combination used by commerce partners to identify and track their products. It is used as the item ID. |
| Item | A generic term that in some API suites is used to refer to a product or its SKU. |
| Itemset | A UI term for a product list. |
For more abbreviation and term definitions, see Glossary.
FAQs
The following are commonly asked questions about getting started with commerce data.
Which integration pathway should I use?
It depends on your data infrastructure and goals. See Product catalog integration.
What's the difference between offline and real-time conversion events?
Real-time conversion events are sent as they happen—no batching or backdating. Offline conversion events are batched and sent after the fact, which is typical for in-store sales or other late-arriving data. Both can be used together in the same integration.
I already use a PIM provider. Can I connect it directly?
Yes. If your PIM provider supports product feeds, you can connect your catalog to The Trade Desk using a feed URL. This keeps your catalog automatically in sync without requiring spreadsheet uploads or direct API calls. For details, see Product catalog feed URL integration.
My conversion data is already in Snowflake or Databricks. Do I still need the Conversions API?
No. If your data is in Snowflake or Databricks, use the respective native connector instead of the Conversion API. For details, see Snowflake connector or Databricks connector. If you'd rather integrate directly, use the Data API SDK option.
NOTE: The Data SDK and Databricks connector support full UID2 mapping, while the Snowflake connector supports UID2 conversion only. The Databricks and Snowflake connectors both handle the runtime for you. With the Data SDK, you run it yourself.
What are item-level conversion events?
These events capture consumer actions—such as viewing an item, adding it to a cart, or completing a purchase—at the individual product level.
Can I report sales data on an aggregated level?
Yes. For details, see Getting started with aggregate sales measurement.
Can I see a sample report of what advertisers will receive when our integration is live?
Yes. To help you understand the type of data and insights that will be made available to advertisers post-integration, we've created a downloadable sample report. This report is representative of the metrics and layout typically provided.
Can I delete IDs shared with The Trade Desk via a product catalog?
Yes. Use the POST /data/deletion-optout/merchant endpoint.