Google Shopping Feed Specifications – Updates to Stock

By Tinuiti Team

Jun 30 2014

Last week, Google announced changes to its Google Shopping feed specifications, or the required format for inventory submission on Google. The feed specification changes include changes to availability and landing pages, which will be enforced starting September 30th.

Google Shopping Feed Specification Changes

Some of the major changes include:

Mobile landing page – separate links for mobile landing pages can be submitted.
Mandatory character limits – each attribute has clear limitations to keep the right information displayed.
Item availability– simplified for a clearer distinction between product availability status.
Other changes include apparel attribute updates and image quality recommendations, among other display oriented optimizations.

Shopping Feed Item Availability Changes to Make Now

Although Google’s new Shopping feed specifications won’t be enforced until later this year, merchants may already be getting warnings about item availability.

Here is an example of a Google Shopping feed availability warning we spotted this week:

New Google Shopping Feed Availability Attributes

Google Shopping’s new data feed specifications remove “available to order” as a feed attribute, replaced by the following come September 30th:

in stock
out of stock
preorder

Here is how Google outlines the availability feed attribute update:

How to Update Google Shopping Feed Specifications

Merchants can edit these attributes under the item availability column of their feed as seen here:

As Google Shopping beings to enforce the new data feed specifications, it is advisable for merchants to make these changes now to avoid problems with their data feed.