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Getting started with PilotStocked.

Install the plugin, run the readiness check, generate the feed and add it to Microsoft Merchant Center.

Requirements

  • WordPress 6.5 or newer
  • WooCommerce 8.0 or newer
  • PHP 7.4 or newer
  • HTTPS on your store
  • A Microsoft Advertising account (free) for Merchant Center

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.

Install

  1. In WordPress, open Plugins → Add New Plugin.
  2. Search for PilotStocked. The plugin is listed in the WordPress.org plugin directory.
  3. Click Install Now, then Activate.
  4. Open WooCommerce → PilotStocked.

No access to the plugin search? Download the ZIP and upload it in Plugins → Add New Plugin → Upload Plugin.

Settings

Open the Settings tab:

  • Store name, Privacy policy, Terms and Return policy URLs: used in the checks and in the Merchant Center answers.
  • Brand: a product attribute to read the brand from, and a Default brand for products without one. Use the default only if you own the brand. Products → Brands (WooCommerce 9.6 and newer) always wins.
  • MPN from SKU: turn on only if your SKUs are the manufacturer part numbers.
  • Condition: new, used or refurbished for the whole catalog.
  • Attributes: which WooCommerce attributes fill color, size, material, pattern, gender and age group. Auto matches them by name.
  • Clothing categories: products in these categories are checked for color, size, gender and age group.
  • Leave downloadable products out: on by default, shopping listings are for physical products.
  • Restore WooCommerce product markup: turn on if a theme or plugin removed it from product pages.

Readiness check

Open the Readiness tab and click Check my store. Store checks cover HTTPS, currency, policy links, product markup and whether the feed URL opens. Product checks run on every product and variation:

  • Missing title, description, main image or regular price: the item is left out of the feed.
  • Small main image, long title or description, all-caps title.
  • No brand, or brand only from the Default brand setting.
  • No GTIN, or a GTIN with a wrong length or check digit.
  • Variants without an attribute that tells them apart.
  • Clothing without color, size, gender or age group.

Each problem links to the products. Fix them, then click Check again.

Microsoft feed

The Microsoft feed tab shows the items in the feed, the items left out, the file size, when the feed was built and when it was last downloaded from outside your site.

  • The file is products.xml: RSS 2.0 with the g: namespace. It is rebuilt twice a day. Click Generate now to rebuild it at any time.
  • The Feed URL is private. Copy it into Merchant Center. If it gets out, click Create a new URL; the old URL stops working at once, so paste the new one into Merchant Center.

Merchant Center

  1. Sign in to Microsoft Advertising and open Tools → Merchant Center.
  2. Create a store and verify your website.
  3. Create a feed, choose a scheduled download from a URL, paste the PilotStocked feed URL and pick a daily time.
  4. After the first download, Merchant Center lists accepted and rejected items. Fix what it reports; the next rebuild sends the changes.

The Merchant Center tab in the plugin has the same steps with a checklist and ready answers for the forms.

Being in Merchant Center makes products eligible. It does not guarantee that Bing or Copilot shows them.

Pro

PilotStocked Pro is an add-on to the free plugin.

  1. Install and activate the free PilotStocked plugin (0.1.2 or newer).
  2. After checkout, open the email from Stocked Labs. It has the Pro download and your license key. Both are also in your customer account.
  3. Open Plugins → Add New Plugin → Upload Plugin, choose the pilotstocked-pro zip, click Install Now, then Activate.
  4. Open WooCommerce → PilotStocked → Pro, click Activate license and paste your license key.

What Pro adds

  • Rebuild on changes: the feed is rebuilt about 10 minutes after the last price, stock or product change, so a bulk edit causes one rebuild.
  • Shipping: a price, country and service name sent as the shipping attribute for physical products. Leave the price empty to use the shipping settings in Merchant Center.
  • Google product categories: an ID or full path from Google’s product taxonomy for each WooCommerce category. Subcategories inherit it.
  • Microsoft feed tab on products: Leave out, Brand, MPN, Google product category and Custom label 0-4. Variations have Leave out and their own MPN.
  • Email alerts: a list of products that dropped out of the feed, with the reason and an edit link, and an email when Merchant Center has not downloaded the feed for 24, 48 or 72 hours.

Updates for Pro appear in Dashboard → Updates while your license is active. To move Pro to another site, deactivate the license on the old site first.

For developers

  • pilotstocked_feed_item filters one feed item (attribute name → value) before it is written. Return null to leave it out.
  • pilotstocked_product_listed decides whether a product or variation goes into the feed and the check.
  • pilotstocked_product_brand and pilotstocked_product_mpn filter the brand and MPN.
  • pilotstocked_feed_generated runs after a new feed file is written.

Troubleshooting

“Could not write the feed file”

Check that wp-content/uploads is writable by the web server.

The feed URL shows a 404

Open Settings → Permalinks in WordPress and click Save Changes to refresh the rewrite rules. Without pretty permalinks the plugin uses a ?pilotstocked_feed= URL.

Merchant Center never downloads the feed

Check that the feed schedule is on and the URL matches the one on the Microsoft feed tab. Security plugins and firewalls must allow the feed URL. The tab shows the last outside download.

The feed is almost empty

Items with a missing title, description, image or price are left out, and so are downloadable products by default. See Left out on the Microsoft feed tab.

Still stuck? Ask on the support forum or contact us.