If you run an eCommerce website than chances are you’ve had some experience with getting a feed generated to add your products to Google Shopping. Depending on the platform you have this may or may not have been a huge pain in the ass. I’m looking at you ONEighty & SMY Performance. Anyway Google has announced that they’ve updated the Google Shopping Products feed specification with new refinements and more options for specifying your products within your data feed.
Specifically there are new attributes where you can define bundles and mobile landing pages while making changes towards image quality requirements and landing page policies. The list of updates is as follows:
- Mobile landing page links should be submitted separately to direct mobile shoppers to the right experience
- Merchant-defined custom bundles, such as a camera with additional case and lens, must now be identified as such in order to be displayed appropriately on Shopping
- Apparel attributes are added to allow more detailed descriptions of your apparel products
- Item availability now simplified to allow a clearer distinction between different availability states
- Mandatory character limits clearly stated for each attribute to help the right product information being displayed
The Google Shopping Team states:
Beginning September 30, we will start enforcing the updated feed specification globally, but merchants can submit the new attributes immediately. We encourage all merchants to review the new feed specification as some of the 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.