April 2011 email from Google Product Search regarding new requirements for data feeds (unique identifiers, tax, shipping)
Product: Manager and Pro
Version: ShopSite 10 sp2 r2 and earlier
Platform: ALL
I received an email notification from 'The Google Merchant Center Team' that, beginning May 3rd, 2011, 2 of the 3 'unique identifier' fields will be required for all products submitted to Google Product Search, and that, beginning June 6th, 2011, shipping and tax values will be required as well. Does this affect my ShopSite? Is there anything that I need to do?
In April 2011, ShopSite merchants using the Google Product Search feature received a notice from Google Product Search regarding new requirements for product submissions beginning May 3rd, 2011 and June 6th, 2011. This will affect ShopSite merchants using both the API and FTP submission methods to send product to Google Product Search.
ShopSite 11, released for the Linux server platform on 1 June 2011, contains new per-product settings for merchants to provide the GTIN (ISBN, UPS, etc) and MPN data for their products for submission to Google Product Search (the 'Brand' unique identifier is already supported). To upgrade to ShopSite 11, merchants
should request the upgrade of their ShopSite through their ShopSite
reseller/hosting provider.
The new tax and shipping requirements that will begin June 6th, 2011 can be satisfied by configuring the account-level default values for Tax and Shipping in your Google Merchant Center account. See the Google Merchant Center documentation at:
http://www.google.com/support/merchants/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=160162
Affected merchants with ShopSite 10 sp2 r2 and earlier who can't or don't upgrade to ShopSite 11, to satisfy the new '2 out of 3' requirement, merchants can add either the MPN or GTIN (or both) attributes to the Google Product Search feeds via the products' Extra Product Fields. Go to Preferences -> Extra Fields and name one of your unused Product Extra Fields either 'mpn' or 'gtin' (minus the quotes) and click Save at the bottom of this menu. Then go to Merchandising -> Google Services -> Product Search -> Configure and at the bottom in the 'Indicate any Attributes That Are To Be Included' section, check the checkbox next to the 'mpn' or 'gtin' (or both) fields that you had configured, then click the Save button at the bottom of this menu. Now edit your products and make sure to fill in the Brand setting and the 'mpn' or 'gtin' (or both) Extra Product Field that you have configured, and on subsequent submissions to Google Product Search these new required attributes will be included in the feed data sent to Google. Information on valid GTIN values for various product categories can be found in the following Google documentation:
http://www.google.com/support/merchants/bin/answer.py?answer=160161
A portion of the email from Google Product Search to merchants is as follows:
==========================================
Hello,
Thank you for participating in Google Product Search. We are reaching out to you to inform you about important changes we're making to our Product Search attribute requirements for unique identifiers and tax and shipping information.
Starting May 3rd, 2011, we'll require your product listings to include at least two of the three unique identifiers (Brand, MPN, GTIN). In order to provide as much information as possible to our users, we need your help in matching your products to our "product pages", where users are able to view useful data such as product specifications or reviews. While these attributes will not be required for your data feed to process correctly, they may prevent your items from appearing in Product Search results if not included. For more details, including what specific identifiers you should include for each category of item, please see our Help Center at
http://www.google.com/support/merchants/bin/answer.py?answer=160161
Starting June 6th, 2011, we'll also require your product listings to include tax and shipping information to provide buyers with important price information. This information will be required at either the account or item level (in the "tax" or "shipping" attribute) in order for your items to process and appear in Google Product Search results. For instructions on how to include tax and shipping information, please visit
http://www.google.com/support/merchants/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=160162
Please update your account settings or data feeds as soon as possible to ensure that you are complying with these new requirements by the dates specified above. For more information about these changes, please visit our Google Merchant blog at
http://googlemerchantblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/changes-for-google-product-search.html
Sincerely,
The Google Product Search Team
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Last Updated
5th of April, 2011