Extended Attributes in Salsify: A Faster Path to Amazon Syndication

Getting a brand fully set up for Amazon syndication has never been a quick process. There are a lot of moving parts, and one of the most time-consuming has been the initial catalog refresh; the full push of product data from Salsify into Vendor Central that has to happen before anything else can. In April 2026, Salsify expanded its backfill workflow to support approximately 50 additional attributes, significantly reducing the manual work required to get there. If your brand is setting up Amazon syndication or planning to, this update matters.

What the Backfill Workflow Does

When a brand connects Salsify to Amazon for syndication, the starting point is a full catalog push. Every product, every field, and every attribute needs to move from Salsify to Vendor Central in a single pass. This is a hard requirement: until that initial push is done, you cannot access the partial content refresh channel, which is the feature that makes ongoing content updates fast and targeted.

The challenge is that Vendor Central already holds a lot of product data before Salsify enters the picture. To update products in VC without rejection, Amazon requires exact matches on several non-editable attributes: Product Type, Product Category, Product Subcategory, Item Type Keyword, External Product ID, Merchant Suggested ASIN, and others. If the values in Salsify don’t match what Amazon has on file, submissions get rejected.

That’s the core problem the backfill workflow solves. It pulls existing product information directly from Vendor Central into Salsify, making Salsify the true source of record. Once it’s complete, Salsify can manage the full syndication cycle and you can start publishing updates quickly and accurately.

What Changed: ~50 Additional Attributes Now Supported

Prior to this update, the backfill workflow covered a relatively small set of fields. Brands had to manually export the remaining data from Vendor Central and import it into Salsify field by field. For catalogs with hundreds or thousands of SKUs, that process added significant time and complexity before any real content work could begin.

The April 2026 update added approximately 50 attributes to the workflow. Fields now supported include Bullet Points, Color, Capacity, Cost Price, Country of Origin, Dangerous Goods Regulations, Item Dimensions (height, width, length), Item Package Dimensions, and more. These aren’t niche fields but standard data points required across most product categories and retail channels.

One practical note: to access the new attributes, brands need to install a new instance of the Amazon Backfill Workflow from the Workflow Library. The expanded attribute set isn’t automatically available in existing workflow instances. (See the full list of supported attributes in Salsify’s documentation.)

Why This Matters Right Now

The timing of this update aligns with where most brands are focused. Content optimization, the practice of improving titles, bullet points, A+ content, and other high-impact fields, is a top priority for almost every brand selling on Amazon. But that work is only as valuable as your ability to publish it quickly.

Partial content refresh is the channel that makes publishing fast and efficient. Rather than pushing the entire catalog every time a change is made, partial content refresh lets you update only the fields that changed, keeping turnaround tight. It’s what makes iterative content testing and optimization actually practical.

But to get there, you have to complete the full catalog push first. The faster that happens, the sooner a brand can start optimizing and publishing at speed. By reducing the manual effort in the backfill stage, the expanded workflow removes one of the more frustrating bottlenecks in the setup process.

What This Means for Multi-Channel Brands

Brands that syndicate to multiple retail channels have an additional reason to pay attention. Many of the attributes now supported in the backfill workflow are standard requirements across retailers, not just Amazon. Product dimensions, Country of Origin, and cost data are fields that nearly every major channel needs.

When those fields get backfilled into Salsify as part of Amazon setup, they’re immediately available for other syndication channels. That means less redundant data entry, fewer gaps to fill channel by channel, and a more complete Salsify record from the start.

For brands managing a broad retail footprint, this kind of foundational work pays dividends throughout the syndication strategy.

Getting the Most Out of the Update

A few practical things to keep in mind before diving in:

Installing a new workflow instance is required. If your team has an existing backfill workflow set up, the new attributes won’t appear until you install a fresh instance from the Workflow Library.

A gap analysis is still worth doing. The expanded workflow covers significantly more ground than before, but it may not cover every attribute in your catalog. Mapping what data lives in Vendor Central against the supported attribute list upfront tells you exactly what, if anything, still needs manual handling and helps set realistic timelines.

For brands already past the initial catalog push, the new attribute support is less immediately relevant, as the backfill workflow applies only to products that already exist in Vendor Central, leaving nothing to backfill for net-new items. It applies when you’re onboarding an existing catalog that hasn’t gone through setup yet, or adding a large block of existing VC products to Salsify for the first time.

The Bottom Line

The expanded backfill workflow is a practical improvement that addresses a real pain point: less manual data entry, a faster path through the full catalog push, and an earlier on-ramp to partial content refresh. Add in the fact that the supported attributes include widely required data points across multiple channels, and the downstream value extends well beyond Amazon.

If you’re working through Amazon syndication setup or building out a Salsify-based content strategy, Sitation’s team can help you map the right approach from backfill through optimization and beyond. Reach out to learn more.