Upload product feed to Google Shopping manually (advanced)
You can save plenty of time with ad campaign management by enabling the automated Google Shopping Ads for your store. In case you prefer a manual setup, you can use a ready XML feed file with your product data, upload it to Google Merchant Center, and manually build your ad campaigns in Google Ads.
Store requirements
Before you upload your product feed to Google Merchant Center, you need to make sure that your store meets the Google Merchant Center requirements:
- Accurate contact information. You need to display sufficient contact information on your store website, including a physical address, a phone number, and/or an email address. If you don’t have a contact page yet, check the guide about Legal pages in your Ecwid store to learn how to add one.
- Refund Policy and Terms of Service. Ensure that you have a clear and conspicuous Refund policy and the Terms of Service on your store website. You can add this information to your store with the help of the Legal Pages option.
- Secure checkout process. You need to make sure that your website is SSL-protected and operates through a secure connection (https://). You can find more information about SSL-protection in the article Showing that a store is secure.
- Language and currency. When submitting your product data to Google Merchant Center, you need to use the language and currency that's supported for your target country. Check the list of currencies and languages by country, if you are not sure what language and currency you are supposed to use.
- Shipping and tax settings. Your Google Merchant Center account must have the same shipping and tax (US only) settings as you have in your Ecwid store so that users understand the exact price they’ll have to pay, including the shipping and tax fees, from your Google Shopping Ads. You can find out how to set up shipping and taxes in your Google Merchant Center in these guides: Set up shipping, Set up taxes (the US only).
Verifying the ownership of your website
Prior to uploading your product data to Google Merchant Center, you are required you to verify the ownership of your website and prove that you are an authorized owner of it.
If you have Ecwid installed on your own website, please perform the following steps to verify your website in Google.
For claiming your Ecwid Instant Site’s domain, follow the steps from the guide: Verify Ecwid Instant Site in Google.
Product feed requirements
There is a number of attributes that should be included in your product feed so that your products can serve the Google Shopping ads. Please, make sure your products have them filled out, otherwise, your products will be rejected by Google Merchant Center.
The attribute is required for each product with a clearly associated brand or manufacturer. If the product is custom-made (e.g., custom t-shirts, art, handmade) or doesn’t have a clearly associated brand, the attribute is optional.
To add the Brand attribute to your product:
- From your Ecwid admin, go to Catalog → Products.
- Open the product you want to edit.
- Switch to the Attributes tab.
- Fill out the Brand field:
- Click Save to apply the changes.
GTIN (Global Trade Item Number) attribute is required for all products with a GTIN assigned by the manufacturer. This is the numerical value of the bar code.
To add a GTIN (UPC) attribute to your product:
- From your Ecwid admin, go to Catalog → Products.
- Open the product you want to edit.
- Switch to the Attributes tab.
- Fill out the UPC field:
- Click Save to apply the changes.
MPN (Manufacturer Part Number) is required for all products that do not have an assigned GTIN. The MPN can be an alphanumeric string, so if your products do not have the manufacturer-assigned MPN, you can use your product SKU number for this attribute.
To add an MPN attribute to your product, first, you’ll need to create a custom product attribute:
- From your Ecwid admin, go to Settings → Product Types.
- Type MPN in the text field for a custom attribute:
- Click Save to apply the changes.
Now you can add an MPN value for the product:
- From your Ecwid admin, go to Catalog → Products.
- Open the product you want to edit.
- Switch to the Attributes tab.
- Fill out the MPN field:
- Click Save to apply the changes.
Attributes like gender, color, and age group are required for products submitted to the Apparel & Accessories category as they help customers filter by color, age, and gender on Google Shopping.
To assign these attributes to your products, first, you need to create an Apparel & Accessories product type:
- From your Ecwid admin, go to Settings → Product Types.
- Click Add New Product Type:
- Expand the category tree or use the search box to find the product type suitable for your item:
- Click Add. You will see a list of attributes required for the set product type:
To fill out the attribute values:
- From your Ecwid admin, go to Catalog → Products.
- Open the product you want to edit.
- Switch to the Attributes tab.
- Click Change type and select the new product type:
- Fill out the attribute fields with suitable values:
- Click Save to apply the changes.
Uploading your product feed to Google Merchant Center
Ecwid automatically generates data feed in XML format with your products. You can upload this feed file to your Google Merchant Center account and manually manage your ad campaigns in Google Ads.
To generate a product feed for Google Shopping:
- From your Ecwid admin, go to Other Channels → Google Shopping.
- Click Generate Feed to start this process:
- From the Marketplace category dropdown, select a category where you want to submit your items. If some of your products do not belong to the general marketplace category selected in the feed settings, you can choose a different marketplace category for a specific item.
- Click Save.
Ecwid generates the feed within 10 minutes. When the feed is complete, in the Other Channels → Google Shopping page, you will see the feed URL that you can copy to the clipboard. You’ll need the feed URL when adding it to Google Merchant Center:
To upload the feed to Google Merchant Center:
- Sign in to your Google Merchant Center account.
- Navigate to Products → Feeds.
- Click the New feed (Plus) icon:
- Select the Target country and Language and click Continue:
- Assign the Feed name and select the Scheduled fetch upload. Click Continue:
- Provide the Feed file name. Do not use the Feed URL for this field.
- Set the Fetch frequency and the Fetch time. Keep in mind, that Ecwid regenerates the feed every 5 hours.
- Set your Timezone.
- Provide the Feed URL that you copied in your Ecwid admin. Click Continue:
Allow Google a few minutes to fetch and process your feed. After that, you will be able to view the feed properties and check the errors if any. Check the Troubleshooting section to see common feed errors and learn how to fix them.
Troubleshooting
URLs do not belong to your website
The product URLs in your feed are generated using the store's web address that is specified in your Ecwid admin, Settings → General and must match exactly the domain you claimed within your Google Merchant Center account. Make sure you have the valid Store's web address that matches your verified domain in Google Merchant Center.
Missing shipping or tax information
Shipping and tax rules need to be set up in your Google Merchant Center. You can find out how to set up shipping and taxes in your Google Merchant Center in these guides: Set up shipping, Set up taxes (the US only).
Missing required attribute: gender, color or age group
Make sure you are providing the gender, color, and age group attributes for the products that require them.
Checkout page is not secure
In Ecwid checkout is processed via HTTPS, but if you’ve added Ecwid on your website that runs on HTTP, the "not secure" badge will still appear. This happens because the browser sees your site as an HTTP non-secure site. In this case, you need to make your website SSL-protected and the webpage URLs will appear with https:// instead of http://.
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