Google Shopping attributes

Unique Product Idenfitiers (UPIs) define a product for sale and uniquely distinguish products that you are listing on Google Shopping. Read more about Unique Product Identifiers on Google's website.

Google have certain requirements surrounding UPIs that must be followed. If these requirements are not followed, Google Merchant Center will reject the product listing:

• If the product has a GTIN assigned, this must be entered into the product in your ShopWired account
• If the product does not have a GTIN but an MPN has been assigned by the manufacturer, this must be entered into the product in your ShopWired account
• When entering an MPN you must also assign a brand to the product
• If a product does not have a GTIN or an MPN and brand, you must mark the product as not having an identifier

When creating or editing a product:

• Navigate to the Additional information section and use the GTIN and MPN settings
• Navigate to the Google Shopping section and use the Mark the product as not having an identifier setting

GTINs, MPNs and the no identifier setting can also be set for products using the product import/export system using the columns Global Trade Item Number (GTIN), Manufacturer Part Number (MPN) and Google No Identifier Exists.

Google requires that for both free and paid for Google Shopping listings that shipping cost information is provided for each product listed.

Google strongly recommends that you configure shipping rates for products within you Google Merchant Center account. Google's best practice recommendations are to not include shipping cost information for products in product data submitted through an app like ShopWired's Google Shopping app or it's multi-channel product feed.

It’s a requirement for both free and paid-for Google Shopping listings that before listing a product you must provide information to Google about how much shipping costs for the product. You can read about Google's best practice recommendations for shipping cost information here.

If you have configured shipping rates within your Google Merchant Center account, select no for the setting Include shipping details in the listings.

However, ShopWired's Google Shopping app does provide a method to include shipping cost information with each individual product listing, by selecting yes for the setting Include shipping details in the listings.

When selecting to send shipping information through the app:

• A single delivery rate will be sent as a domestic shipping rate (e.g. if your ShopWired account is based in the UK, then a shipping rate for UK shipping will be sent)
• Where more than one delivery rate is applicable to the product, the cheapest rate available will be sent to Google Merchant Center
• A shipping rate needs to be configured for any international region/country in which you want to list your products
• If you sell your products internationally, select the setting Include a shipping rate for all shipping zones configured, and the Google Shopping app will send a single shipping rate for each configured delivery zone.
• Where more than one shipping rate is applicable to the product for the delivery zone, the cheapest rate available will be sent to Google Merchant Center.
• When using the setting Include a shipping rate for all shipping zones configured, shipping rate information will not be sent for the following delivery zones, even where delivery rates are configured for them:
• Rest of the World, Northern Ireland, Scottish Highlands, Scottish Islands, Channel Islands, Isle of Wight, Mallorca, Ibiza, EU VAT ZONE, European Countries, Canary Islands, BFPO
• Where you have configured delivery rates within ShopWired for one of these excluded zones, you will need to configure delivery rates individually for the respective countries by configuring them as individual delivery zones within your ShopWired account
• Where a product has a specific delivery price or has been marked as being free delivery, this is the delivery rate used for the product when it is sent to Google Merchant Center
• This will only be sent for the UK delivery zone and no other delivery zones

When Google Merchant Center accepts your product listing it will automatically place the product into the category Google assesses as being the most appropriate for the product, based on the other information provided for the product.

You can categorise the product yourself from Google Shopping's category taxonomy, this is recommended if Google has not categorised your product correctly or you want to retain full control over the categorisation of products.

When creating or editing a product:

• Navigate to the Google Shopping section and use the Google product category setting

Categories can be set for products using the product import/export system using the column Google Category - you must specify a category ID here obtained from Google's list available here.

If you are selling a used or refurbished product, you must inform Google Merchant Center of the condition of the product or the product listing will be rejected.

Whilst you do not have to specify a condition for new products, it is advisable.

When creating or editing a product:

• Navigate to the Google Shopping section and use the Google condition setting
• The only available values are New, Used and Refurbished, these values are defined by Google

The condition can also be set using the product import/export system using the column Google Condition - you must specify either New, Used or Refurbished.

If the product you are sending to Google Shopping is a bundle product you should mark the product as a bundle using Google’s is_bundle attribute. You do not need to be selling product bundles using ShopWired’s product bundles feature in order to mark products as bundle products. You may also wish to mark products with the is_bundle attribute when the product meets Google’s definition of a bundle.

When creating or editing a product:

• Navigate to the Google Shopping section and use the Submit this product with the 'is_bundle' attribute setting

The bundle attribute can also be set using the product import/export system using the column Google Is Bundle. Leave the column blank or enter No if the product is not a bundle.

Depending on the category/type of product, Google may require that additional information about the product is provided through the detailed product attributes feature. For example, if you are selling clothing you must supply size information.

ShopWired currently supports the following detailed product attributes

• Age Group
• Gender
• Material
• Pattern
• Size Type
• Colour
• Size
• Ships From Country

Where a detailed product attribute contains a list of predefined values for you to select from, this list is determined by Google and cannot be customised. You should select the most appropriate value for your product.

When supplying a Ships From Country you should supply the ISO-3166-2 Alpha 2 country code, e.g. GB for the United Kingdom. Read more information on Google’s website.

Google has specific requirements about the type and format of data it accepts for Material, Pattern, Colour and Size. ShopWired strongly advises that you consult Google’s information before configuring any values into any of the free-form detailed product attributes:

• Google Material
• Google Pattern
• Google Colour
• Google Size

When creating or editing a product:

• Navigate to the Google Shopping section and use the settings provided

You can also set detailed product attributes using the product import/export system using the columns Google Age Group, Google Gender, Google Material, Google Pattern, Google Size Type, Google Colour, Google Size, Google Ships From Country. Where an attribute has a predefined set of available values, you must use the exact format provided by Google.

The Google Shopping app does not send a stock quantity of your product or its variations to Google Merchant Center (Google doesn’t accept one), and instead only sends a value for the product or variation’s availability from one of the following values: in_stock, out_of_stock, preorder, backorder.

• Where your product or variation does not have a SKU code, the availability will be sent as in_stock
• Where your product or variation has a SKU code, the Google Shopping app will send the availability as either in_stock or out_of_stock depending on the stock quantity
• Products (and their variations) that are marked as pre-order in ShopWired with a ships-on date in the future will be sent to Google as preorder
• Products (and their variations) that are marked as being eligible to be purchased when out of stock with a stock quantity of 0 will be sent to Google as backorder

The Google Shopping app sends updates to Google Merchant Center about the availability of products as soon as the information on ShopWired is changed (subject to the app’s current load). This includes edits made to products or stock values:

• The product import system
• The edit-product page
• The stock import system
• The stock management page
• The ShopWired products API endpoint
• The ShopWired products/id/variations API endpoint
• The ShopWired stock API endpoint
• Google Shopping variation URLs

Variation URLs are a feature on ShopWired that pre-selects variation options for a visitor when they land on a product page, depending on the URL that they have visited.

When using the Google Shopping app’s feature to variations as separate items, the Google Shopping app will use the variation URL as the link attribute in the information sent to Google Merchant Center about the product - inline with Google’s best practices.

All Version 4 and Version 5 ShopWired themes support variation URLs but for more guidance refer to the variation URLs help guide.

If your theme does not support variation URLs, the use of variation URLs by the Google Shopping app does not adversely affect visitors who land on your website from a variation URL - only that when they land on your product page the variation listed in the Google Shopping app will not be preselected for them - everything else will work as normal.

You can use custom labels with Google Shopping campaigns and Performance Max campaigns to subdivide the products in campaigns using custom label values that you define. Read more about custom labels.

The Google Shopping app supports the custom labels system available on Google Shopping using ShopWired's custom fields feature.

When creating or editing a product:

• Navigate to the custom fields section and use the custom fields labelled
• Google Shopping Custom Label 0
• Google Shopping Custom Label 1
• Google Shopping Custom Label 2
• Google Shopping Custom Label 3
• Google Shopping Custom Label 4

You can also set Google custom labels using the product import/export system using the custom field columns shown below.

If you are using the Gross Profit Report app to add cost prices for your products and product variations, the Google Shopping app will automatically send cost price information for listings to Google Shopping using the cost_of_goods_sold attribute.