From Shopify Wiki

These individual help pages may be of use to you:

• Google Merchant Center custom product type
• Google Merchant Center unique product identifiers
• Google Merchant Center age group and gender
• Google Merchant Center variant attributes
• Setting Google Merchant Center Domain
• Enabling Google Base to assist with Google Merchant Center

What is Google Product Search?

Google Product Search's tagline is 'Search for stuff to buy.' That's precisely what it is. You list your products there and people can use Google's powerful search engine to sift through the available products. Consumers can easily compare product prices and can visit your online store by just clicking your product from Google Product Search.

Note: This feature is only available in three countries. Google currently only allows integration with merchants operating in the US and operating in USD, or in the UK and operating in GBP, or in Germany and operating in Euros.

How can I publish my products?

Shopify integrates directly with Google Product Search. If you opt-in to using the integration with Shopify we will update your products every day with the latest information. Shopify publishes your products under your own Google account so you will have the ability to customize and tweak your account, view performance reports, missing information, etc.

Just go to the Promotions tab of your Shopify admin and scroll to the Product Search Engines section to opt-in to this integration. Follow the instructions on screen to get up and running.

Note: You have until May 18, 2010 to verify and claim your website URL in your Merchant Center account. This is a new requirement. If you fail to do so within this delay, Google will not, or will no longer, publish your products. Detailed instructions here: http://www.google.com/support/merchants/bin/answer.py?hl=en_US&answer=176793

Here's a great video that will show you how to verify and claim your website: http://www.cpcstrategy.com/newsletter/040110/video.html

What product information is submitted by Shopify

• title : product title
• description : product description
• id : product id
• link : link to the product page on your store front
• price : the price of the cheapest variant for that product
• brand : product vendor
• google_product_category: Google product type additional attribute
• product_type : product type
• availability: "in stock" if the product is available, "out of stock" otherwise
• image_link : link to the first product image
• additional_image_link: up to 9 product images, if available
• condition : "new"
• target_country : the country of your shop
• age_group: Age group additional attribute, if available
• gender: Gender additional attribute, if available
• color: all color options defined by variants, if available
• size: all size options defined by variants, if available
• material: all material options defined by variants, if available
• pattern: all pattern options defined by variants, if available
• tax: all taxes defined on shop, if applicable

Taking It Further

Since your products are published under your personal Google account you have the freedom to take the integration to the next level and hook into other Google services such as Adwords and Checkout.

Google Checkout

If you are already a user of Google Checkout you can connect your Checkout account with your Product Search account so that consumers can buy your products directly from Google Product Search without having to visit your site. This also has the added advantage of displaying any reviews that your store has with your products on Product Search.

Head to the Settings section of your Google Merchant Center account to configure your Checkout account.

Google Adwords

You can also integrate your Google Product Search results with your Adwords account. The details of this kind of integration can be found on the adwords blog: [1].

FAQ

My store name on Google is not my shop name

Your products are published under your own personal Google account. So we can't control the name of your account, but you can change it. Head to this page to customize your account (such as store name): http://www.google.com/merchants/basicsettings

Some of my products are not listed and they should be. What should I do?

All products that are not hidden, and that have a description that isn't empty, should be published unless they contain some boiler plate text such as 'Free shipping' or 'Click here' (Google will scan for these words.) You will need to contact Shopify Support if some of your products are missing. Before you contact support, we would like you to log in to your Google Products account at http://google.com/merchants, then choose 'Products' => 'Active' => 'Show All', and see what you have listed there, to report to us what products exactly are missing. That will give us a better idea of what's going on with your account.

Take note that we publish your products once a week, so the products you have created within the last 7 days may not yet be listed in your account. That is normal.

I am already using my own feed, should I stop using my own feed and rely on Shopify to submit my feed?

We suggest using Shopify because we will keep your feed updated automatically for you. There are, however, exceptional circumstances where you may want to hire a developer to generate a custom feed, for example if you are selling collectibles, or antiques, and you need to show your items as 'used' on Google.

I am already submitting my own Google Base feed. Can I also use Shopify to submit another feed?

Google Product Search has policies against posting duplicate products, so you definitely don't want to do that.

On the merchant center dashboard or data feed section, I don't see any thing under filename, schedule and status. It seems like I don't have any feed when I use Shopify to submit my products for me. Is this supposed to be blank?

The data feed is supposed to be blank, yes. These sections is for files uploaded by you. Shopify utilizes the Google Base API to publish your products. You should be able to see a list of your products by choosing 'Products' from the sidebar.

Products that are out of stock are published too. Is this normal?

Yes. Only products that are hidden won't be published. By the way, products that aren't currently in stock are just fine by Google's standards. They are 'valid' products.

On the Shopify side it says the next upload feed is in about a day, however in the google side it says it's scheduled in about a month. Which one is correct?

Shopify updates your feed every day. However, your products (according to Google) are valid for one month. If you were to turn off the Shopify integration, your products would still be listed on Google Product Search for one month until they expire. Every day, Shopify overwrites your products with any new information, which pushes the expiry date ahead by two days.

I have several shops. Can I use the same Google account to publish all my products?

We suggest using different Google accounts for a couple of reasons. Google Merchant Center is geared towards a single store. You can set your store name for all products, you can configure Google Checkout on all your products, etc.

So using multiple accounts would allow you to set a unique store name for each store, configure specific options, such as Google Checkout, properly, and also view your reporting for each group of products.

If you are really adamant about using the same Google account, then there is no problem with that. However, our integration is not compatible with multi-client accounts. If you are not familiar with this term, then it probably won't affect you.

My store front is currently password-protected. Will you still publish my products?

Yes. If your individual products are hidden, then they will not be published to Google Base. However, password protecting your store will not prevent your products from being published to Google Base by us.

My antique products are listed as new in Google Product Search. How do I change this?

Shopify cannot offer you the possibility to publish your products as 'used' or 'refurbished'. The condition of published products is a required attribute in the feed and Shopify is using 'new' as this is by far the most common for shop-owners. You can hire a developer to generate your own custom feed as per these instructions.

I received an email saying: There was a problem publishing your products to Google Product Search.

Start with this 'restart' technique: Go to the Promotions tab in your admin. Depending on what Google is returning, you may need to click "Manage your account" or "Resolve it" then click unlink and re-publish your feed. If your products still aren't published after that, review possible causes such as

Any product description that has been left blank (the description is required)

Problematic products such as perishable items, or collectibles, or otherwise used items. Shopify publishes your products as new

A mismatch between these 3 URLs:

1. Your primary domain as set in your Shopify admin on the /admin/domains page.

2. The Website URL that is verified and claimed in the General Settings of your Google Merchant Center account:

3. The Website URL set under Customer service information in the General Settings of your Google Merchant Center account:

All 3 URLs must be the same.

I am seeing an error message pertaining to shipping and/or taxes, what can I do about this?

Shopify does not have a way to submit this information on your behalf, however, you should enter it directly into the merchant center itself. This section can be found under the settings tab, taxes and shipping. Make sure to set one as your primary if you are adding multiple options. For further information on setting up shipping and tax information, you can review Google's document, found here. These changes can take a week to fully update in their system.