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Google Merchant Center

1. Connect your store to Google Merchant Center​

Connect your store to Google Shopping through a respective account on Google Merchant Center.

Register an account​

In order to create a Google Merchant account, you must have a Google account.

Steps
  1. Go to the Google Merchant Center.
  2. Click Start now and log in to your Google account.
  3. Fill out the information about where customers can buy your products:
    • Do you sell products online? Select Yes and enter the URL of your website in the input field.
    • Do you have a physical store? Select Yes if you have a brick-and-mortar store.
  4. If you're offered to link your Shopify store to Google via an app, choose Continue to Merchant Center instead.
  5. Read the information about where Google will show your products and click Continue to Merchant Center.
  6. Provide your Business name and the Registered country. When you're finished, click Continue to Merchant Center once again.

Verify and claim your website​

Google will show your products on Google Shopping only after you prove ownership of your store's website in your Merchant Center. Follow these steps to connect your online store to Google:

Steps
  1. Log in to Google Merchant Center.
  2. Navigate to Business info > Details.
  3. Under the Your online store section, click Confirm online store.
  4. Enter your website address in the Your online store URL input field.
  5. Choose Use your ecommerce platform as the verification method.
  6. Follow the instructions Google provides for the Shopify platform.
  7. When you finish, click Verify your online store.
  8. After successful site verification, click Claim website.

2. Create the product feed​

To upload your products to Google Merchant Center, you need to create and configure the product feed. Log in to your Shopify store admin and follow these steps to create the feed:

Steps
  1. Navigate to Apps > Mulwi Feeds > Feeds.
  2. Click Add Feed to generate the new feed.
  3. Choose the Google Shopping feed template.
  4. Pick either a TXT/CSV or an XML feed format and click Create.
  5. Set feed's status in the This feed is currently field to Active.
  6. Fill in the general feed information:
    • Feed Internal Name. Give your feed a descriptive name.
    • Filename. Give your feed file a unique name. Note that you can't change this field after saving the feed.
    • Max Number of Items per File. Limit the amount of products in the feed.
    • Compression. Compress the feed file if necessary.
    • Protect feed with password. Password-protect your feed if necessary.
  7. In the Applied Filters section, you can filter your products.
  8. Fill in the Template section:
    • Google Shopping Categorization. Map your categories to the Google Product Taxonomy. If your products have the same category, use Static Category. Start typing the category name or ID and choose the appropriate category from the dropdown menu. For multiple categories, set your own taxonomy with Dynamic Mapping.
    • Specific fields. Pick appropriate values for Google's required attributes.
    • Shipping details. Fill in this section if you want to use different shipping information than in your Merchant Center.
  9. In the Source of prices section, you can set product prices from Markets or Price Lists.
  10. Select where your stock is in the Stock Locations section.
  11. In the Translation section, you can translate your feed.
  12. Configure the Google Analytics section if necessary.
  13. Click Save changes to finish and generate the feed.

After saving the new feed, you can customize it if necessary.

NOTE

For correct product placement, you may need to use Data Mapping. Check the Google Merchant category mapping reference for guidance.

3. Upload the feed​

You can upload your feed to Google Merchant Center via URL, via SFTP, or manually.

Log in to your Google Merchant Account and follow these steps to upload your product feed:

Steps
  1. Click the gear icon on the top panel and choose Data sources.
  2. Click the Add product source button.
  3. Choose Add products from a file.
  4. Pick the upload method you prefer and follow the instructions below to finish the upload.
NOTE

We recommend using the SFTP method due to more frequent feed updates and data encryption.

Submit a feed by URL

In the Mulwi Shopping Feeds app:

  1. Navigate to the feed you want to upload.
  2. Click the Copy feed URL button in the Feed block.

The feed link will be copied to the clipboard.

Then, in Google Merchant Center:

  1. Choose Enter a link to your file.
  2. Paste the feed link you've copied from Mulwi in the input field.
  3. Change the fetch frequency in the Edit schedule block if necessary.
  4. Add authentication information in the Add authentication information block if your feed is password-protected.
  5. At the bottom of the page, choose the countries where you sell and select the feed language.
  6. Click Continue to finish and upload the feed.
Upload over SFTP

In Google Merchant Center:

  1. Choose Add a file using SFTP or Google Cloud Storage.
  2. Leave the input field blank for now. You will fill it in later.
  3. Click View SFTP and Google Cloud Storage details.
  4. Copy the provided credentials. Ignore the Fingerprint value: you won't need it.
    To generate the password, click Generate password.
WARNING

The generated password will show only once. Write the password down in a safe place.

Then, in the Mulwi Shopping Feeds app:

  1. Navigate to the feed you want to upload.
  2. In the Feed block, choose the FTP/SFTP Upload option and click Manage FTP/SFTP.
  3. Fill in the credentials:
    • Auto Upload. Set the frequency of automatic feed uploads.
    • Protocol. Set SFTP.
    • Host. Copy the Server value from the Merchant Center credentials.
    • Port. Copy the Port value from the Merchant Center credentials.
    • Authorization type. Set Password.
    • User. Copy the Username value from the Merchant Center credentials.
    • Password. Copy the Password value from the Merchant Center credentials.
    • Upload Directory. Leave empty.
  4. Click Save to apply changes.
  5. Click the arrow near the FTP/SFTP Settings title to go back to the feed’s page.
  6. Copy the feed filename (with file extension) from the Feed block. It has the same value as the Filename input field.

Then, back in Google Merchant Center:

  1. Click Done to close the window with the credentials.
  2. Paste the feed filename you've copied from Mulwi in the input field.
  3. At the bottom of the page, choose the countries where you sell and select the feed language.
  4. Click Continue to finish and upload the feed.
Direct file upload

In the Mulwi Shopping Feeds app:

  1. Navigate to the feed you want to upload.
  2. Click the Download button in the Feed block.

The feed file will be downloaded to your device.

Then, in Google Merchant Center:

  1. Choose Upload a file from your computer.
  2. Click Browse to open the file explorer.
  3. Locate the feed file on your device.
  4. Select the file and click Open.
  5. At the bottom of the page, choose the countries where you sell and select the feed language.
  6. Click Continue to finish and upload the feed.
NOTE

Google Merchant Center supports files up to 4 GB in size.
If your feed exceeds this limit, break the feed down into multiple files.

FAQ​

Missing shipping information error

To solve this problem, you must set shipping rates for your products.

Google recommends setting up shipping rates on account level in the Merchant Center.
You can also include shipping rates in the product feed. The rates in the feed will override the ones set on account level.

Set shipping rates in Google Merchant Center
  1. Navigate to Shipping and returns > Shipping policies.
  2. Click Add shipping policy.
  3. In the respective tabs provide information about Countries where you ship, which Products the new shipping policy affects, Delivery times, and Shipping costs. Navigate between tabs with the Continue and Back buttons.
  4. Click Save to create your new shipping policy.
  5. Check the information Google added to your Merchant Center and click Done to finish the configuration.
Set shipping rates directly in the product feed
  1. Navigate to the feed you want to configure.
  2. If you are using a pre-installed template, fill out all the input fields in the Shipping details block of the Template section.
  3. If you have customized your feed, add [shipping], [shipping_label], and [shipping_weight] attributes to the feed template.
Missing tax information error

If you sell in the US, you must set tax rates for your products.

Google recommends setting up tax rates on account level in the Merchant Center.
You can also include tax rates in the product feed. The rates in the feed will override the ones set on account level.

Set tax rates in Google Merchant Center
  1. Navigate to Products > Sales tax.
  2. Click Edit.
  3. Pick the states where you sell.
  4. Set tax rates for each state.
  5. Click Save to finish the configuration.
Set tax rates directly in the product feed
  1. Navigate to the feed you want to configure.
  2. If you are using a pre-installed template, click Customize Feed in the Template section to customize your feed.
  3. Add [tax] and [tax_category] attributes to the customized feed template.