Creating a data feed for Google Merchant Center

Setting up a product data feed for your products is a great way to get added exposure for your online store by syndicating them to a variety of these shopping portals.

Product data feeds are updated whenever you make a change to your products, so you can be sure that they're up to date. To create a data feed for Google Merchant Center follow the instructions below.

IMPORTANT!
You need to ensure that all of your products have a Barcode (UPC/EAN, ISBN) and SKU (Stock Keeping Unit) before submitting your data file Google Merchant Center. If you don't do this, they will not accept your submission!

Step 1 - Create a collection of products

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  Collections Section

Firstly we need to have a list of products to send to Google Merchant Center. To create this, you'll need to create a collection that contains all of the products you want in your data feed. You can create a Standard Collection or a Super Collection. This can be done in the "Collections" section of your store's Toolbox.

If you already have created a collection for another provider (for example Shopping.com), or you just want to have all of your products in your feed, you can skip this step.

Step 2 - Creating your data feed

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  Creating your data feed

After you have created your collection, go to the
"Marketing -> Product data feeds" section of your store's Toolbox, and click the "Activate" button in the Google Merchant Center section.

1. Enter a name for your feed. It's not used anywhere except for your reference.
   
2. Select the collection you created in Step 1
   
3. Click the "Activate" button

Step 3 - Adding your data feed on the Google Merchant Center website

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  Adding your data feed on the Google Merchant Center website

Once you have signed up for a Google Merchant Center account, you can then add your data feed. In the "Data feeds" section of the Merchant Centre, click the "New Data Feed" button.

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  Data feed options

On the next screen, choose the country you are based in, enter "data-feed.xml" for your filename, and click "Save changes".

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  Click "Create schedule"

Click the "Create schedule" link next to your data-feed.xml file.

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  Scheduled upload

In the Popup window, choose "Weekly", select your timezone, and then paste in the URL of your data feed that you have copied from the "Marketing -> Product data feeds" section of your store's Toolbox. In most browsers, you can right-click on the URL and copy it.

Username and password should be left blank.

When you have done this, click the "Schedule and fetch now" button. Google will fetch your XML file. If there are any issues, it's likely because there are issues with product data. You will need to check any products in your store's Toolbox that you receive warnings about to make sure that they all have a Barcode (UPC/EAN, ISBN) and SKU (Stock Keeping Unit).

Common Errors

Insufficient product identifiers: Missing two out of three attributes [GTIN, brand, mpn]
This means that you have not entered an SKU or a Barcode for this product. You will need to edit the product in your store's Toolbox and ensure it has an SKU and/or Barcode.

Missing required attribute: id
This means that you have not entered an SKU for this product. You will need to edit the product in your store's Toolbox and ensure it has an SKU.

Missing recommended attribute: google product category
We cannot include the Google product category in the feed. You can safely ignore thi. warning.