Helping Canada’s largest classifieds site list products, automobiles, jobs, and real estate

Kijiji is Canada’s largest classifieds platform, where users buy, sell, and trade locally. The platform is home to individuals and businesses that list items such as furniture, electronics, and vehicles, as well as real estate, jobs, and services.

With such a wide range of users and listings, the company has grappled with the monumental task of continuously importing and editing large data sets before they could be displayed on the website.

“The reason why we reached out to Feedonomics in the first place was because we had larger retail clients that wanted to come on board,” said Rose Milos, Head of Customer Success at Kijiji. “The only way they were able to send us the data was in these large feed files, but we didn’t have a way internally to actually do that.”

The partnership began in 2017 with Feedonomics onboarding Kijiji’s retail feeds. By 2020, Feedonomics was ingesting listings for real estate, jobs, and vehicles for the classifieds site.

Since then, Feedonomics has cut Kijiji’s onboarding time in half, freed up its tech team to focus on other key initiatives, and given the team greater flexibility and control over its growth.

“Feedonomics is basically like an extension of our tech team,” Milos said. “We can use your resources to help us achieve the goals on the commercial side of the business where we’re lacking support.”

Ingesting and transforming millions of SKUs to become listing-ready

Before working with Feedonomics, Kijiji typically onboarded seller data into its system manually, or used custom scripts and software to import and synchronize data from various databases.

“A typical custom feed that a client would create for Kijiji often had issues with it, which made it more challenging to standardize and fix,” said Nina Langfield, Sales Operations Lead at Kijiji.

Kijiji used a variety of feed providers and independent developers to import merchant data, making the process of ingesting and keeping listings up-to-date more cumbersome.

Merchant files are typically forwarded to Kijiji once or twice daily, so onboarding was a huge time-sink for the tech team, diverting its attention from other critical projects.

“It’s really a blanket statement that our engineering team in the past hasn’t had the bandwidth to focus on feeds at all,” Langfield said.

The company now saves time and resources by having Feedonomics automatically import seller data multiple times per day, format it using custom transformation rules within the platform, and then send it to Kijiji’s servers.

As of May 2024, Feedonomics processes more than 14 million SKUs from hundreds of seller databases for the classifieds site.

“The adaptability afforded by Feedonomics to standardize data allows us to cast a broader net, accommodating merchants interested in utilizing the system but unable to meet our feed specifications,” Milos said.

Langfield estimates that Kijiji has more than halved its onboarding time for some custom feed imports, allowing the company to focus on other business initiatives, such as product stabilization.

“Since using Feedonomics, that piece of the puzzle has gotten quicker. [Onboarding] might have taken 10 to 40 days, and it might only take 5 to 10 now to turn around in that scenario,” Langfield said.

Syndicating seller listings and providing increased visibility and control

In addition to streamlining onboarding, Kijiji wanted to enhance its user experience by enabling real estate and automotive sellers to easily syndicate their listings to other ad channels and drive traffic back to their Kijiji listings.

“Feedonomics facilitates daily affiliate file exports that capture snapshots of the Kijiji.ca listings within our real estate and automotive verticals,” Langfield said. “These are shared with external parties as part of partnership endeavors.”

Feedonomics aggregates seller data from several sources using a wide range of import methods like web crawls or direct integrations with ecommerce platforms. Kijiji then imports this data to give its sellers more visibility over listing performance.

“Feedonomics provides analytics and performance insights, allowing sellers on Kijiji to monitor the effectiveness of their listings and make data-driven optimizations to improve visibility and sales,” said Kristin Macintosh, Business Operations Manager at Kijiji.

Providing a flexible platform and partnership

Since Kijiji is a custom classifieds platform, out-of-the-box solutions don’t always match its specific requirements. Kijiji leans on Feedonomics to resolve the unconventional or technical data feed issues that inevitably arise.

“It’s not unusual for Feedonomics to devise novel and innovative solutions to address challenging issues, such as identifying instances when client raw feeds have dropped off or finding ways to navigate challenges arising from problematic data inputs,” Langfield said.

Kijiji’s team also taps into the wealth of industry knowledge Feedonomics’ feed experts bring to the table.

“Feedonomics maintains proactive communication with Kijiji, keeping us informed about platform updates, upcoming changes, and relevant industry news,” Milos said. “This ensures transparency and helps users stay ahead of developments that may impact their operations or strategies.”

The regular communication and hands-on support Kijiji receives has led the team to view Feedonomics more like a growth partner than just another provider.

“Feedonomics goes beyond just providing a software platform,” Macintosh said. “It encompasses a holistic approach focused on delivering value, support, and guidance to users throughout their journey of managing and optimizing product listings effectively.”