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Generating your export (feed) for Google Merchant Center
Generating your export (feed) for Google Merchant Center

Follow these steps to export your product data to Google Merchant Center.

Niall Diamond avatar
Written by Niall Diamond
Updated over a week ago

So, what is Google Merchant Center? Put simply, it's a tool that helps you upload your product data to Google and make it available for Shopping ads and other Google services. Here's a really handy link for any questions about Merchant Centre

We've covered off setting up the Merchant Center App here and also talked about product groups here. Both of these articles are the first steps in getting your product export / feed ready, so please make sure you've followed each of those steps carefully.

⚠️ Important : Google requires correct product data. You need to insure all products have Manufacturer ref (MPN), GTIN (EAN), Brand. If these are invalid or missing they will not be included in your feed.  

⚠️ Important : Print Cartridges, Ink & Toners : Google has very specific rules associated with this type of product. Please read the rules carefully. Link below.
​https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/7558050#printercartridges
​

When these first two steps are complete, we're ready to run the export!

Let's head into the admin panel > Products > Feeds and select New Feed

We simply need to give it a name, select the product group from which to produce the export for and hit Save

The final stage is to decide whether to export this directly to the Merchant Center to  download it for manipulation and then manually upload this file.

If the 'push feed' box is left unchecked you can download this file
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But when this box is checked, it will send directly to the merchant centre
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What happens when you push the feed to Google

When you click the "Generate and Push Feed", the system creates the feed file and drops it into a directory (folder). Next, we make an API request to Merchant center to setup or update the feed settings.

  • If we don't see the feed "evox-googlefeed", we will create it

  • If the feed is already there then we update the feed time.

  • e.g. If you generate the file at 11:13am, we will update the Daily collection time to the next hour 12:00pm.

  • e.g. If you generate the file at 13:33, we will update the Daily collection time to the next hour 14:00.

The Collection of the file will be set to Daily, however the file contents will not change unless you re-generate the file.

👍 Important: The file and contents are manually updated via the "Generate and Push Feed" button in the EvoX admin. If you want your file and contents to be updated dynamically (Daily, Weekly, Monthly), you can achieve this by using the API calls for creation for feeds. https://docs.evoapi.io/#the-product-feed-object

Storefront View - EU/UK Stores Only

Make sure that you are showing your product prices as Inclusive VAT or show both the Inclusive and Exclusive price. You can set this using VAT display rules in  Store Settings > VAT in the Admin. If you chose "Both" setting then you will need to add "excl VAT" next to your product price.
​

To do this just add the following code to your Appearance > Theme Options > CSS block.  
​
​

/* This is needed for Google Feeds to work */
.price-label.has-price::after,
.price > .has-price::after,
.price.has-price::after {
   content: ' excl VAT';
   font-size: 14px;
}
.product.non-taxable .price-label.has-price::after,
.product.non-taxable .price > .has-price::after,
.product.non-taxable .price.has-price::after {
   content: ' incl VAT';
   font-size: 14px;
}

Here is some further code you can apply within the 'Footer block' area. This makes sure the 'Excl VAT' text does not show against non-vatable items 👍

<script>
//add class to product if non-taxable to hide excl-vatif 
if ($('.product').length) {
  $('.product').each(function () {
    var currentProd = $(this);
    if ($(currentProd).find('.fa-money-non-taxable').length) {
      $(currentProd).addClass('non-taxable');
    }
  });
}
    
//PDP 
if ($('.ex-product .productsummary_container .product').hasClass('non-taxable')) {
  $('.product-shopping-actions').addClass('non-taxable');
}
</script>

Microdata / Product Scheme

Once you push or upload a feed Google will come to your website and check that the price values are the same. Thus, it's important to make sure that your structured data is updated correctly. Have a look below to see the best settings per region. 

USA Setup

👍 Important: "Show out-of-stock" This should be set to "Out of Stock" as Google has updated their policy to require PreOrder items to include a date.

___________________________________________

EU/UK Setup

Make sure that you have either VAT incl setting or the "Both" VAT incl and excl setting. Google wants to see the VAT inclusive price on the webstore.
​

Microdata settings EU/UK

👍 Important: "Show out-of-stock" This should be set to "Out of Stock" as Google has updated their policy to require PreOrder items to include a date.

Feed name - App Store:

The feed name is an optional field in the App Store settings. This is only needed for customers that have multiple stores and run Google Feeds on each of their stores under the once Google Merchant Center account or Sub Accounts. If you are in this position then set the feed name on each store to something unique. For example you can add your store id into that Feed name field for each of the stores.


You're now ready to start using the GMC services - driving extra traffic to your store and helping your products get found! 💪


​Next Step: Checkout Google Customer Reviews for Merchant Center

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