This article explains how to format dates and times when submitting your product data. You’ll submit dates and times for attributes such as availability date [availability_date]
, sale price effective date [sale_price_effective_date]
, and expiration date [expiration_date]
.
On this page
How it works
Use the ISO 8601 standard, which this article explains in more detail. Depending on the attribute, you’ll submit a date or date range, and you can include a specific time.
Format a date
Include the date in the following format:
YYYY-MM-DD
For example, to submit May 11, 2017, use:
2017-05-11
Include a time
To add a specific time to your date:
- Follow the date with the letter
T
- Add the time of day in 24-hour format:
hh:mm:ss
. For example:13:00:14
- After the time, add the time zone. For example, for UTC-8, use:
-0800
For example, to submit May 11, 2017 at 12:01:59 AM for the UTC-8 time zone, use:
2017-05-11T00:01:59-0800
If you don’t include a time, we’ll use the end of the day: 23:59:59
If you don’t include a time zone, we’ll use a default time zone:
- Text and XML feeds will use the default time zone for your target country.
- The API will use UTC.
Country | Default time zone for Text and XML feeds |
---|---|
Australia | +1000 |
Brazil | -0300 |
Canada | -0500 |
Central European countries | +0100 |
Japan | +0900 |
Mexico | -0600 |
New Zealand | +1200 |
Russia | +0400 |
Singapore | +0800 |
United Kingdom | Z or +00:00 |
United States | -0800 |
Format date ranges
Some attributes accept date ranges that include a start and end date. A date range is a start date and end date separated with a slash ( /
): start/end
For example:
2017-05-11T00:01:59-0800/2017-06-21T22:13:59-0800
for PST2017-02-24T11:07:31+0100
for Central European Time
If you don’t include a time, the start date will use 00:00:00
, and the end date will use 23:59:59
.
Examples
Variants
Product data for Android T-shirt - Green - Small | |
Attribute | Product Data |
Title [title] |
Android T-Shirt - Green - Small |
Price [price] |
10.99 USD |
Sale price [sale_price] |
9.99 USD |
Sale price effective date [sale_price_effective_date] |
2016-02-24T13:00-0800/2016-02-29T15:30-0800 |
Color [color] |
green |
Size [size] |
s |
ID [id] |
9876-S-GRN |
Item group ID [item_group_id] |
9876 |
Product data for Android T-shirt - Blue - Small | |
Attribute | Product Data |
Title [title] |
Android T-Shirt - Blue - Small |
Price [price] |
8.99 USD |
Sale price [sale_price] |
5.99 USD |
Sale price effective date [sale_price_effective_date] |
2016-06-23T13:00-0800/2016-02-29T15:30-0800 |
Color [color] |
blue |
Size [size] |
s |
ID [id] |
9876-S-BLU |
Item group ID [item_group_id] |
9876 |
Product data for Android T-shirt - Red - Small | |
Attribute | Product Data |
Title [title] |
Android T-Shirt - Red - Small |
Price [price] |
10.50 USD |
Sale price [sale_price] |
8.99 USD |
Sale price effective date [sale_price_effective_date] |
2016-05-11T13:00-0800/2016-02-29T15:30-0800 |
Color [color] |
red |
Size [size] |
s |
ID [id] |
9876-S-RED |
Item group ID [item_group_id] |
9876 |
Product is available for preorders with a specific release date
Product data for Android Squishable | |
Attribute | Product Data |
Availability [availability] |
preorder |
Availability date [availability_date] |
2016-12-25T13:00-0800 |
Expiration date
Product data for Lederhosen | |
Attribute | Product Data |
Title [title] |
Lederhosen - brown - L |
Expiration date [expiration_date] |
2016-12-25 |