Recent Google Product Feed Updates

Hi everyone – as you likely read the Google Product Search team is at it again and have announced new requirements for items to be included in their feeds. The changes aren’t being implemented until September 22nd so you have some time yet, but we’re updating you now so you have time to update your feeds and prepare as/if necessary. And, of course, Bonanza will endeavor to do whatever we can to make this easy on you.

What gives? There are a few changes to be aware of. If you want the full details I highly recommend going and reading Google’s recent Blog update. However, if you are prone to scanning the highlights we’ve summarized the most important elements below.

Availability: Google wants users to be able to find your products even when they are out of stock. For this reason, the availability status of all your items will be required. Bonanza will handle this for you by passing each item’s appropriate ‘in-stock’ availability.

Product Category: Google has added a new required high-level attribute called [google product category] that contains the category of the item in Google’s taxonomy (currently only required for a select number of categories). Bonanza already handles this by mapping your items’ categories to the appropriate Google categories. Required categories include:

'Apparel & Accessories > Clothing'

'Apparel & Accessories > Shoes'

'Apparel & Accessories'

'Media > Books'

'Media > DVDs & Movies'

'Media > Music'

'Software > Video Game Software'

Images: Google is making at least one product image required and encourages you to submit several product images per item as a means to improve the visual representation of your products. Bonanza has you covered as we already pass the main product image with every product. In fact, we will submit multiple product images (provided you have uploaded them) for each item.

Apparel: In order to create a better experience for product variants such as dresses or shoes that are available in multiple colors or sizes, Google asks you to include information like size and color in your product feed. Bonanza already passes this information if you have indicated it as an item trait. Additionally, Google requires that you to provide gender and age group by indicating ‘kids’ or ‘adults’ for each of your items. Bonanza will automatically flag any items in kids or children’s categories (boys, girls, infants & toddlers) as ‘kids’ and all other dresses and shoes as ‘adults.’ Gender will be determined by looking at item categorization. Any items with ‘Men’s’ or ‘Women’s’ in the category will be appropriately passed along. Items (most likely shoes) without this information will be passed along as unisex.

Really itching to learn more? Attend Google’s webinar on the matter. Google Product Search experts will explain these changes in detail in an exclusive live webinar on July 21, followed by a live Q&A session. During the webinar you can also chat with Google experts. To attend, simply click on this link (https://googleemea.connectsolutions.com/productsearch/) on July 21, 11AM PDT, and enter your Merchant Center account ID under “Enter as a Guest”. Don’t worry if you cannot make it. Google says they will provide a recording in the Help Center soon after.

Please let us know if you have any questions.