Google Shopping Feed

The Google Shopping Feed plugin generates a Google Merchant Centre product feed for your store and publishes it at a stable feed URL. You submit that URL to Google Merchant Centre as a scheduled fetch, and Google collects your latest product data on its own schedule, ready for Google Shopping listings and Shopping campaigns. The feed lives on the plugin's Legacy feeds tab.

The feed is produced as a standard XML file in the Google Merchant Centre RSS 2.0 format, so it works with Merchant Centre without any manual file uploads.

Features

• Google Shopping XML feed in the standard Merchant Centre RSS 2.0 format, with the Google product attributes Merchant Centre expects.
• Scheduled refresh so the feed regenerates automatically at the interval you choose.
• Stable feed URL that you paste once into Merchant Centre as a scheduled fetch; you never have to upload a file by hand.
• Variant support so each product variant is published as its own item, grouped under the parent product. You can also send only the first or the cheapest variant of each product.
• Category mapping from your own store categories to Google product categories. Store categories whose names match a Google product category are picked up automatically.
• Product filtering by status (active only or all) and an option to include or exclude out-of-stock products.
• Default brand fallback applied to any product that has no brand of its own.
• Sale price support, where a higher compare-at price becomes the list price and the lower price becomes the sale price.
• Multiple feeds per store, each with its own settings and schedule.
• Built-in validation so you can check a generated feed for missing fields, and see which products are affected, before relying on it.

How many products a feed can include, and how often it can refresh on a schedule, depend on your plan.

Before you start

You will need:

• A Google Merchant Centre account for your business. If you do not have one, create it at the Google Merchant Centre website and complete the standard business and website verification steps.
• Products in your Orbit Commerce store with the details Google expects, such as titles, descriptions, prices, images and, where available, a barcode (GTIN).

The plugin reads your products and store categories to build the feed, and builds product links from your store's primary web address. The XML feed does not need access to your Google account; you simply give Google the feed URL.

Getting started

1. Install the plugin. Open the plugin store in your Orbit Commerce dashboard, find Google Shopping Feed and install it. A new Google Shopping Feed entry appears in your dashboard menu.
2. Create a feed. Open the plugin, go to the Legacy feeds tab and select Create Feed. Give it a name (for example, Main Google Feed).
3. Set the basics. Choose your target country (the United Kingdom is the default), and confirm the content language and currency.
4. Set a default brand (optional). If some products have no brand set, you can provide a fallback brand name here.
5. Choose product filtering. Decide whether to include only active products or all products, whether to keep out-of-stock products in the feed (they are included by default, marked as out of stock), and whether to send every variant.
6. Enable a schedule (recommended). Turn on scheduled generation and pick how often the feed should refresh. The intervals you can choose depend on your plan.
7. Map your categories (optional). On the feed's detail page, map your store categories to Google product categories so items are classified the way you want.
8. Generate the feed. Use Generate Now to produce the first version of the XML feed.
9. Copy the feed URL. On the feed's detail page, copy the Feed URL shown in the Feed URL panel.
10. Add it to Merchant Centre. In Google Merchant Centre, add a new product feed, choose the scheduled fetch method, paste your feed URL, and set Google's fetch frequency. Google will then collect the feed automatically.

How the feed works

When the feed runs, the plugin reads your current products and writes them into a single Google Shopping XML file, then publishes that file at your feed's URL.

What's included. Each product (and each variant, where a product has them) becomes one item in the feed. For each item the plugin includes, where the data is available:

• A unique item ID, plus an item group ID that links variants of the same product.
• The product title, with variant option values appended (for example, Blue / Large).
• A plain-text description, with any HTML formatting stripped out.
• A link to the product on your storefront.
• The main product image and up to nine additional images.
• Availability (in stock, out of stock, or backorder for products that allow backorders), based on the quantity.
• Price, and a sale price when a sale price is set on the product or a compare-at price is higher than the current price.
• Brand (the product's own brand, or your default brand fallback).
• Condition, which is new by default.
• A barcode as the GTIN when the product has a valid one; otherwise the SKU is sent as the MPN when the product has a brand.
• The Google product category, from your mapping or matched by your store category's name. When neither applies, the category is left out.
• Colour, size, material, pattern, gender and age group, taken from matching variant options.
• Product type, from your store category name.
• Shipping weight, when set on the product.

How often it refreshes. When you enable a schedule, the feed regenerates automatically at the interval you choose; which intervals are available depends on your plan. Without a schedule, the feed only updates when you press Generate Now. The plugin also keeps a regularly refreshed copy of your product data behind the scenes so each run uses recent information.

The feed URL. Each feed has its own fixed URL, shown in the Feed URL panel on the feed's detail page. It looks like https://your-feed-address/api/feeds/your-feed-id/xml (opens in a new tab). This is the URL you give to Google as a scheduled fetch. Because the URL stays the same, Google can keep fetching the newest version without any further action from you. The served file is cached for up to an hour.

Settings

Each feed has its own settings, which you can change at any time by editing the feed.

• Feed name: a label to identify the feed in your dashboard.
• Target country: the country you are selling into. The United Kingdom is the default.
• Content language: the language of your product information, as a two-letter code (for example, en).
• Currency: the currency used for prices in the feed (for example, GBP).
• Default brand: an optional fallback brand applied to any product without its own brand.
• Include out-of-stock products: on by default, so products with no stock stay in the feed marked as out of stock.
• Product status filter: include only active products, or all products regardless of status.
• Variant submission: every variant (the default), the first variant only, or the cheapest variant only.
• Item ID format: your internal IDs (the default) or SKUs.
• Schedule: turn automatic generation on or off and choose the refresh interval.

On the feed's detail page you can also manage category mapping: match your store categories to Google product categories so items are classified the way you want in Merchant Centre.

Troubleshooting

The feed isn't updating in Merchant Centre. First check that the feed has actually regenerated: the feed's detail page shows when it was last generated. If you are relying on automatic updates, make sure scheduled generation is enabled and an interval is set. Also check the fetch schedule on the Google side, as Merchant Centre collects the feed on its own timetable. If needed, use Generate Now to produce a fresh copy immediately.

Products are disapproved for a missing or invalid category. Map your store categories to Google product categories on the feed's detail page, then regenerate the feed so the change takes effect.

Prices, images or descriptions look out of date in Google. The feed reflects the product data captured when it was last generated, and Google then fetches on its own schedule. Update the affected products, regenerate the feed, and allow time for Google's next fetch. Remember that descriptions are published as plain text with formatting removed.

Some products are missing from the feed. Check the feed's product filtering. If the status filter is set to active only, products in other statuses are excluded, and if out-of-stock products are not included, items with no available stock are left out. Adjust these settings, then regenerate and use the built-in Validate Feed check to confirm the contents.

Support

For help with this plugin, visit the Orbit Commerce Help Centre (opens in a new tab), or use the Support link below.