Google Merchant Center recently updated its shipping rate policy. As of July 31st, shipping rates need to be provided for all products that include Austria, Belgium, Canada, Ireland, or Poland as a country of sale.
The shipping information can be submitted at the item level using a shipping attribute in the product feed or provided for all products in a Google Merchant Center account on the Shipping page.
This change is being enforced so that the full cost of products can be displayed on Shopping ads. The reasoning behind it is to ensure accuracy and to create a better user experience.
According to Google, “After July 31, 2019, accounts that include Austria, Belgium, Canada, Ireland, or Poland as a country of sale will be subject to reviews of individual items, as well as account-level reviews. Accounts that don’t include the required shipping information may be disapproved and products associated with those accounts will generate errors and won’t be eligible to appear in Shopping ads.”
Brian Roizen is the Cofounder and Chief Architect of Feedonomics, a full-service feed optimization platform that optimizes product data for hundreds of channels. He has been featured on numerous podcasts and eCommerce webinars, and regularly contributes to Search Engine Land and other industry-leading blogs. Brian graduated summa cum laude from UCLA with both a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering.
