What Implementations Needs to Get Started

Two Essentials to Kick Off Your Project

Welcome to Athos Commerce! To begin your implementation and stay on track, there are two key requirements we need from you:

1. Finalized Design
2. Data Connection

Finalized Design

Your site’s product listing or search results page must be fully coded on one of the following:

• Your live site
• A preview theme
• A staging environment

This means all features and UI elements that Athos will match — such as sorting, filters, badges, product cards, and layout — must already be implemented.

Why this matters

We don’t design or build your pages; our team replicates your existing layout and logic. 

🛑 No mockups or wireframes.
✅ Only final, functional pages we can reference.

Read more about what finalized design means.

Note: If you are implementing via API or Self-Snap (SDK), the front-end design does not need to be finalized in order to kick off the project. Since you are owning the front-end implementation, you can finalize design elements throughout the implementation process, just before integrating. 

Data Connection

To power Athos, we need access to your product catalog. This can be done via one of two methods:

Option A: Use Our Platform Connector

We offer integrations with:

• Shopify
• BigCommerce
• Magento 2

We also offer custom connectors using:

• CSV
• JSON
• XML

Option B: Provide a Product Data Feed

If you prefer a custom setup, we accept feeds over FTP, HTTP, or HTTPS with basic auth or IP whitelisting if needed.

Requirements:

• At least 30-40 real or representative products
• Feed should reflect the final store catalog structure
• Feeds must be refreshed regularly (no caching) 

In some cases, based on your requirements, we may need additional feeds. Examples of these feeds are listed below.

• Custom Product Feed
• Content Search Feed
• Supplemental Feeds

You can view Product Feed Guidelines for more information.

Common Challenges (and How to Avoid Them)

Knowing what can hold things up helps us keep your project moving! Here are a few common issues to watch for:

• Catalog data is not yet available = Examples: agency still building, re-platforming to a new e-commerce platform, no historical data for recommendations, etc.
• Missing access or credentials = This especially applies to connectors. We need the right permissions to complete the data setup. Please know that ALL access we are requesting is necessary.
• Magento 2 missing required extension = This must be installed before we can connect data. This will also need to be connected on both staging (for testing) and production (when ready to go live).
• Custom data feeds missing critical info = This includes product IDs, categories, pricing, etc.
• Google Shopping feeds = These are not compatible with Athos.
• Manual or emailed feed files = Feeds must be hosted and regularly updated; attachments won’t work. See more here.