BesteKauf.de Integration

BesteKauf.de's merchant program is built around a pay-per-click model: according to its registration materials, you are only billed for the clicks that send shoppers through to your webshop, with a monthly minimum billing reported at around EUR 25 (excl. VAT). There is no long-term contract -- listings can reportedly be started and stopped from day to day. Once registered, merchants get access to a partner dashboard (PartnerNet) to review daily clicks and costs.

Because BesteKauf.de runs on Compare Group's shared platform, a single well-structured feed can also be extended to reach Compare Group's other national sites (Vergelijk.nl, Vergelijk.be, Comparer.be, Vertaa.fi) using country-specific field variants, without building a second feed from scratch.

Compare Group's feed manual documents two matching mechanics that directly affect whether your offers appear correctly on BesteKauf.de:

1. Identifier matching -- each offer should carry an identifierType of EAN or SKU with a matching identifierValue. A valid EAN must be 13 or 14 digits; the manual states that invalid EAN codes are simply ignored rather than blocking the whole offer.
2. Price-per-unit calculation -- for certain categories (the manual specifically flags Germany, for products like food, beverages and perfume) you must also supply units (a numeric quantity) and unit (e.g. ml, g, pcs). Compare Group defines a base unit per category (for example 100 ml for perfume) and converts your data to it. Its own worked example: a 500 ml perfume sold for EUR 100 becomes (100 / 500) * 100 = EUR 20 per 100 ml.

Categorisation follows the same logic: the shopCategory field should use the lowest, most specific level of Compare Group's category tree (a German-language classification file is published alongside the manual) rather than a broad or numeric category code.

Per Compare Group's official Product feed manual (the specification underlying BesteKauf.de's merchant feeds), the preferred format is XML, because columns can be added or removed without breaking the ingestion process. A CSV file is also accepted if needed; supported field separators are pipe (|), semicolon (;) and comma (,) -- if you use commas as the separator you must wrap values in enclosures ("...") and escape any literal double quotes inside a field (so A"B becomes "A""B").

The feed must be hosted by you or a third party at an externally accessible URL (for example http://www.yourstore.com/bestekauf/datafeed.xml). Connecting and validating a brand-new feed can take up to 5 days. Compare Group asks to be notified in advance at partner@comparegroup.eu of any change to the feed's URL or structure, since an unannounced change can mean products are read incorrectly or dropped entirely. An XSD schema is published to validate the XML structure before submission.

The following fields come directly from Compare Group's Product feed manual (version 5.8), which governs feeds submitted to BesteKauf.de as well as its sister sites. Field names below are the XML element names used in the manual's examples.

This is Compare Group's shared merchant schema rather than a page published solely under the BesteKauf.de brand name, but the manual explicitly singles out German-market rules (unit price fields, energy label) as shown above, confirming it is the spec BesteKauf.de merchants are expected to follow.

Feedance is not an official BesteKauf.de or Compare Group partner; the steps below describe the general process for producing a feed that fits BesteKauf.de's documented requirements.

1. Register your webshop with BesteKauf.de and provide the requested company details (domain and shop logo, VAT ID, company/trade-register information, and a SEPA authorization for billing).
2. In Feedance, build a feed mapping your product catalog to Compare Group's field set: shopOfferId, shopCategory, productName, brand, EAN/SKU identifiers, basePrice, deepLink, image/media fields, stock status and shipping fields, plus units/unit and an energy-efficiency feature where your German catalog requires them.
3. Publish the feed as XML (preferred) or CSV at a stable, externally accessible URL.
4. Submit that feed URL through BesteKauf.de's merchant registration/PartnerNet dashboard.
5. Allow for the review window BesteKauf.de/Compare Group describes (up to 5 days to connect and validate a new feed) before offers go live.
6. If you later change the feed's URL or its structure, notify Compare Group in advance (documented contact: partner@comparegroup.eu) so the change doesn't cause products to disappear or show incorrect data.

Compare Group's manual states its default schedule is to refresh merchant data feeds four times per day, and invites merchants whose own catalog changes more frequently to request a faster schedule. Since BesteKauf.de bills on a pay-per-click basis, keeping price and stock-status fields (basePrice, inStock, nrInStock) current between refreshes matters for avoiding clicks on stale or out-of-stock offers. Feedance can regenerate your feed on a fixed schedule so the file waiting at your published URL always reflects current pricing and availability, ready for Compare Group's next scheduled pull.

Compare Group's manual does not publish a list of literal error codes or rejection messages for BesteKauf.de, but it does document specific validation rules whose violation is a documented cause of offers being dropped, ignored or mismatched:

1. Invalid EAN codes -- an EAN must be a valid 13 or 14-digit code; the manual states invalid EANs are ignored, so double-check that EAN values aren't truncated, padded, or copied from an internal SKU field by mistake.
2. Duplicate or changing shopOfferId values -- offer IDs must be unique and should not be modified once assigned; reusing or shifting IDs across catalog updates can cause products to be processed as new/duplicate listings.
3. Non-compliant images -- images below 500x500px, without a white/neutral background, containing your shop's logo, a price, promotional text, or “no image available” placeholders do not meet the documented image requirements and can keep an offer from being approved.
4. Missing German unit-price fields -- for categories like food, beverages and perfume, the manual makes units and unit mandatory in Germany specifically; omitting them on a German feed is called out as a compliance gap, not just a “nice to have.”
5. Overly broad or numeric categories -- the manual explicitly says shopCategory should not be numeric and should use the lowest available level of the category tree; generic top-level categories reduce the chance of an offer being matched and shown at all.

These are general best-practice tips consistent with Compare Group's own guidance for its comparison sites, not BesteKauf-specific claims beyond what's cited above:

1. Populate as many featureName/featureValue pairs as you can (color, material, gender, age, size, dimensions) -- the manual notes these power on-site filtering/faceting and directly affect how easily shoppers find your offers.
2. Provide both EAN and SKU identifiers where available, even though only one is strictly required, since the manual states both are used for matching and search.
3. Keep every SKU/variant (different size, color, etc.) as a separate line in the feed rather than folding variants into one listing, and use variantGroup only to group true variants of the same product -- never different products.
4. Use the most specific, lowest-level category available rather than a broad parent category.
5. Keep delivery time estimates as narrow as possible (e.g. “2-3 days” rather than a wide range), since the manual calls out specificity here explicitly.

Does BesteKauf.de accept CSV feeds, or only XML?
Both are supported under Compare Group's feed manual. XML is preferred because fields can be added or removed without breaking processing; CSV is accepted with pipe, semicolon or comma separators (commas require quoted enclosures).

How long until my products go live on BesteKauf.de?
Connecting and validating a new feed can take up to 5 days per Compare Group's documentation; BesteKauf.de's own registration materials describe products going live within roughly 2-3 days once your submitted information is accurate and complete.

How does BesteKauf.de charge merchants?
Its registration materials describe a pay-per-click model with a reported monthly minimum billing of around EUR 25 (excl. VAT) and no long-term contract commitment.

Is BesteKauf.de only for the German market?
BesteKauf.de is Compare Group's German-market site; the same company operates comparable sites for the Netherlands, Belgium and Finland on shared feed infrastructure, so a single feed can sometimes be extended to cover multiple markets using country-specific field variants.

Do I need to provide energy efficiency ratings?
Where an EU energy label applies to a product, Compare Group's manual states the energy efficiency class feature is mandatory specifically for the German market.