How do I enable my products to be listed on Google Shopping?

Google Shopping, formerly known as Google Product Search, is a service offered to help shoppers find products quickly and easily on the web. The advantages of using Google Shopping for ecommerce owners selling online include:

• Exposure: millions of people use Google each day, and many are actively looking for the consumer or business products you're selling. This be a tremendous asset in increasing sales and driving traffic to your store.
• Control of content via submission of product feeds. Google Shopping lets you maintain the accuracy and freshness of your product information so customers can find relevant, current items you are offering and for which they are looking.

What We'll Cover

• Mapping Your Categories
• Enabling Products in Bulk
• Enabling Products Individually

Before you can submit a product feed to Google Shopping, you will need a Google Merchant Account.

Category Mapping

Mapping your categories is the first step to enabling your products for listing on Google Shopping. Because of Google's categories and the fact that they probably won't match the categories you have set up in your store, you will need to link Google's hierarchy with your own.

1.) Login to your store's control panel.

2.) Click on Products and then Product Categories.



3.) Notice how there are no Google icons (or they are faded) under the Category Mapping column. This indicates the categories have not been mapped yet.

4.) In order to map a category, click the Edit link under the action column to the far right.



5.) Click on the Google Products Search tab.



6.) Check box next to Enable Google Shopping. Now a Google Product Category need to be assigned. Click the blank feild next to the label and a window will pop up.



7.) Choose the category in which you wish to list your products. You do not need to fully sub-categorize your mapping?you may choose a category in the first, second, or third column.



8.) Save your mapping.

9.) Repeat this process for all other categories you need to map. The Google Shopping icon will be fully visible, indiciating the categories are mapped.



* Please note, each category must be mapped individually. This includes sub-categories; mapping a parent category does not authomatically map it's children categoires. They all need to mapped separately and can all have different mapping, if you so choose.

Unmapped sub-categories:



Fully-mapped categories and sub-categories:



Once all your categories are mapped, the next step will show you how to enable your products for listing. There are two ways to do this:

1. In bulk with a CSV product file: the quickest and most efficient way to enable a large number for products at once. However, you will need a spreadsheet editor such as Microsoft Excel or Open Office for this method.
2. Individually in the store control panel: the simple approach if you only want to enable a few products at a time. It does not require external tools, such as spreadsheet editor.

Enabling Products in Bulk

1.) In your store's control panel, click on Products and then Export Products.

2.) Select the Bulk Edit template and click Continue.

3.) A window will open on your screen; click Export my products to a CSV.

4.) Once the progress bar reaches 100%, click the Download my Products file.

5.) Open up the CSV file you just downloaded with a spreadsheet editor such as Microsoft Excel, Open Office, or Numbers.
6.) The screenshot below shows a sample CSV and the initial columns starting from the left hand side of the spreadsheet.

7.) The last set of corresponding columns to the far right are shown below. By default, GPS enabled is set to 'N' and the GPS Category column is empty.

8.) To enable a product, change the GPS Enabled value to Y. Then, type in the category mapping you want to use in the GPS Category column. This needs to be one of the categories in your store (not a Google Shopping category.) For most users, the content of this column will be the same as the regular category column called Category. However, if your products are in more than one category, you need to select only one of the category paths as an input value for GPS Category. Please make sure that you have previously mapped it for it be a valid value for the GPS Category column.

(Click image to enlarge)
9.) You will need to fill out other information as required by Google.
To find out which ones are relevant to your products, please refer to Google's documentation at the following links:

• Summary of Attribute Requirements - The table at this link specifies what information is required for different types of products. These must be included in your feed in order to be accepted by Google.
• Unique Product Identifiers - The table here specifies the format the above mentioned attributes need to be in (e.g number of characters, numbers v.s alphabets only, and so on).

See the attached example CSV file at the end of this article if you want to view an example of a finished CSV in greater detail. Other columns specific to Google Shopping are:

• GPS Global Trade Item Number
• GPS Manufacturer Part Number
• GPS Gender
• GPS Age Group
• GPS Color
• GPS Size
• GPS Material
• GPS Pattern
• GPS Item Group ID

Other columns you may need to populate depending on the type of products you are selling are:

• Brand Name
• Product UPC/EAN

10.) Save your CSV file once you are done filling out all the required feilds. We recommend that you save it under a new name so that you have a previous version of your products before you update them.

11.) In your store's control panel, click on Products and then Import Products.

12.) Check the box next to Yes, I exported this using the 'Bulk Edit' template. Find your CSV file on your computer by clicking the Browse (or Choose) button. Then, click Next.

13.) Verify that the categories were matchedcorrectly, and then click Next.

14.) Click Start Import and your products will now be imported into your store.
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Your product are now enabled and ready to list. Please read this article for help on submitting your feed to Google.

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Enabling Products Individually

1.) In your control panel, click on Products and then View Products.

2.) Click the Edit link under the action column for the product you want to enable.

3.) Click on the Google Shopping tab.

4.) Check the box next to Enable Google Shopping and pick a category. The category must be highlighted for it to be selected, and for your enabling Google Shopping to save correctly. Fields specific to Google Shopping will be under this same tab. You can find other additional feilds such as the Product UPC/EAN and Brand under the Other Details tab. To find out which feilds are relevant to your products, please refer to Google's documentation at the following links:

• Summary of Attribute Requirements - The table at this link specifies what information is required for different types of products. These must be included in your feed in order to be accepted by Google.
• Unique Product Identifiers - The table here specifies the format the above mentioned attributes need to be in (e.g number of characters, numbers v.s alphabets only, and so on).

5.) Remember to save your changes. Repeat the process for any other products you wish to enable.

Now that your products are enabled for listing, the next final step is to submit the feed itself. Please read this article for help on submitting your feed to Google.