This year we’ve updated the Google Shopping Feed Specification together with our Google Product Taxonomy. The goal of these changes is to create a richer experience for customers searching for your products online and to simplify the process of providing information in your feed. Some of the updates require changes to your current product data that need to be implemented by September 15, 2015.
Here's what's been updated:
Google Shopping Feed Specification
Google Shopping Product Taxonomy
Beginning September 15, 2015, we’ll start enforcing the feed specification update globally with the exception of shipping. Given that specifying accurate shipping rates can be more complex, we're providing more implementation time for this change -- shipping enforcement will begin February 1, 2016. All Product Taxonomy changes are recommended and not required.
You can submit the new attributes starting later this week. We encourage you to review the new feed specification, as some of these updates will require changes to your current product data. To find a list of all changes, view the updated feed specification in the Merchant Center Help Center.
To deliver the best online shopping experience for your customers, always make sure to comply with our Google Shopping policies and legal requirements while participating in Google Shopping to avoid any product or feed disapprovals.
Posted by Angelika Rohrer and Patrik Reali, Google Shopping Team
Here's what's been updated:
Google Shopping Feed Specification
- Units & Quantity attributes are now available for the US
- We tightened guiding principles around the ID Attribute and GTINs
- We disentangled Apparel and Variants attributes and expanded the requirements to Brazil. This revamped section is called: ‘Detailed Product Attributes and Item Groupings’
- We are releasing stable numeric Google Product Category IDs that can also be provided as values for the Google Product Category attribute
- We expanded the Shipping requirements to Switzerland, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, and Japan to enable total price displays to users in these countries
Google Shopping Product Taxonomy
- We simplified many Google Product Taxonomy paths by rolling up a number of categories to their parent nodes
- Most of the categories under Activewear are now included with their non-active counterparts, for example, 'Active Skirts' will now be found under 'Skirts'
- We added more categories to the verticals ‘Food, Beverages & Tobacco’ and ‘Mature’
- Some verticals have undergone significant rework, and you may wish to revisit your provided Google Product Categories
Beginning September 15, 2015, we’ll start enforcing the feed specification update globally with the exception of shipping. Given that specifying accurate shipping rates can be more complex, we're providing more implementation time for this change -- shipping enforcement will begin February 1, 2016. All Product Taxonomy changes are recommended and not required.
You can submit the new attributes starting later this week. We encourage you to review the new feed specification, as some of these updates will require changes to your current product data. To find a list of all changes, view the updated feed specification in the Merchant Center Help Center.
To deliver the best online shopping experience for your customers, always make sure to comply with our Google Shopping policies and legal requirements while participating in Google Shopping to avoid any product or feed disapprovals.
Posted by Angelika Rohrer and Patrik Reali, Google Shopping Team