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 our Help Center: 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.

Brand

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:

1. Go to your Ecwid Control Panel → Catalog → Products.
2. Open the product you want to edit.
3. Switch to the Attributes tab.
4. Fill out the Brand field.
5. Click Save to apply the changes.

GTIN or UPC

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:

1. Go to your Ecwid Control Panel → Catalog → Products.
2. Open the product you want to edit.
3. Switch to the Attributes tab.
4. Fill out the UPC field.
5. Click Save to apply the changes.

MPN

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:

1. Go to your Ecwid Control Panel → Settings → Product Types.
2. Type MPN in the text field for a custom attribute:

3. Click Save to apply the changes.

Now you can add an MPN value for the product:

1. Go to your Ecwid Control Panel → Catalog → Products.
2. Open the product you want to edit.
3. Switch to the Attributes tab.
4. Fill out the MPN field.
5. Click Save to apply the changes.

Gender, color, age group

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:

1. Go to your Ecwid Control Panel → Settings → Product Types.
2. Click Add New Product Type.

3. Expand the category tree or use the search box to find the product type suitable for your items:

4. Click Add. You will see a list of attributes required for the set product type:

To fill out the attribute values:

1. Go to your Ecwid Control Panel → Catalog → Products
2. Open the product you want to edit.
3. Switch to the Attributes tab.
4. Click Change type and select the new product type.

5. Fill out the attribute fields with suitable values.

6. 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 that you can upload to your Google Merchant Center account and manually manage your ad campaigns in Google Ads.

To generate a product feed for Google Shopping:

1. Go to your Ecwid Control Panel → Other Channels → Google Shopping.
2. Click Generate Feed.

3. Select the Marketplace category where you want to submit your items.
4. Choose the Product condition for your goods.
5. Click Save:

Ecwid generates the feed within 10 minutes. When the feed is complete, 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:

1. Sign in to your Google Merchant Center account.
2. Navigate to Products → Feeds.
3. Click the New feed (Plus) icon.

4. Select the Target country and Language and click Continue.

5. Assign the Feed name and select the Scheduled fetch upload. Click Continue.

6. Provide the Feed file name. Do not use the Feed URL for this field.
7. Set the Fetch frequency and the Fetch time. Keep in mind, that Ecwid regenerates the feed every 5 hours.
8. Set your Timezone.
9. Provide the Feed URL that you copied in your Ecwid Control Panel. 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.

FAQ

What if some of my products do not belong to the general Marketplace category selected in the feed settings?

In this case, you can assign a different category for the items that do not belong to the general category with the help of Product Types:

1. Open your Ecwid control panel → Settings → Product Types.
2. There you click + Add New Product Type and choose the one that fits best the from the list. Then click Add.

3. Now you can assign this Product Type as a marketplace category for the product in the Catalog. Go to Ecwid control panel → Products.
4. Add new or choose a product to edit.
5. Open the Attributes tab, then click Change type and choose the new type for this product.

6. Fill in the required attributes
7. Save the changes.

After that, the product will use the Google category specified for that product type. The new category will be reflected in the feed in 5 hours.

Troubleshooting

URLs do not belong to your website

The product URLs in your feed are generated using the Store location link that is specified in your Ecwid Control Panel → Settings → General and must match exactly the domain you claimed within your Google Merchant Center account.

Make sure you have the valid Store location link 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 all the checkout is processed via HTTPS, but if you’ve installed 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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