New Feed Specification updates in Google Shopping will go into full effect beginning June 26th, 2017.
Google has made a habit of updating the Google Merchant Specification attributes this time of the year, and this year they are focusing on the quality of information related to tax, shipping, and availability.
Last year, the most important change we’ve seen was the reinforcement of GTINs by May 16th and lots of other attributes by September 1st.
Let’s see the changes that await Google Shopping Merchants this year and how to make sure you’re not caught off guard.
Google Shopping Updates
As of June 26. 2017, all merchants using Google Shopping will have to update their feeds according to the new rules:
- Minimum Order Value (MOV) will expand to all product categories in all Google Shopping Countries. Until now, minimum order value was accepted only for food and beverages. The MOV has to be provided in the shipping settings for all the products that are sold below this threshold.
More information on how to handle this attribute here. - Shipping attributes such as price and weight come with new limits. If products have shipping costs and weight above the new limits they will not be approved in the Google Merchant Center.
Google offers detailed instructions for what rules the attributes have to comply for shipping and shipping weight.
New shipping attributes will vary from country to country, so make sure to check this page and apply the attributes according to the specification here. - Handling time is a new attribute that merchants in the US can make use of to display the estimated delivery date of an order.
Min_handling_time and max_handling_time are optional fields that will help merchants submit better quality data to the Google Merchant Center.
In order to make the best use of this attribute, merchants have to use business days for estimated delivery date. If products are ready to ship the same day the order is placed, then the value is going to be 0
More information on the new attributes min_handling_time and max_handling_time can be found here.
There you have it, the three new updates Google Shopping is reinforcing as of June 26th, 2017.
It is crucial that by then all feeds are updated according to the new requirements (if applicable). If merchants fail to provide the updated feeds then products will be disapproved in GMC and business will suffer.