Google Merchant Center is what powers Google Shopping — when someone searches for a product on Google, the results that show prices and photos come from Merchant Center listings. Adding your shop is free and can bring in significant new traffic.
Before you start
You need a custom domain connected to your shop. Free shop links can't be submitted to Merchant Center. See Connecting a custom domain if you haven't set one up yet.
Step 1 — Find your product feed URL
Go to Dashboard → Shop and scroll to the Search Engines section. Look for the Product catalog feed field. It looks something like:
https://yourshop.com/merchant-feed.xml
Tap the copy button to copy the URL. We update this feed automatically — every product you add, edit, or remove appears in it within a few hours.
Step 2 — Sign up for Google Merchant Center
Go to merchants.google.com and sign in with the Google account you want to use for your shop. Click Get started and follow the setup:
- Enter your business name (use the same name as on your shop)
- Choose your country and time zone
- Pick how customers will check out — select "On your website"
- Add your custom domain when prompted
Step 3 — Verify your domain
Merchant Center asks you to prove you own the domain. The easiest method is the HTML tag — Google gives you a small piece of code to add to your site. Paste it into Dashboard → Shop → Verification Codes → Google. Save, then come back to Merchant Center and click "Verify".
See Verifying your domain with Google and Bing for the full guide.
Step 4 — Add your product feed
In Merchant Center, go to Products → Feeds and click Add primary feed:
- Country: the country you sell in
- Language: your shop's main language
- Feed name: anything memorable (e.g. "Main catalog")
- Method: choose Scheduled fetch
- File URL: paste the merchant feed URL you copied in Step 1
- Frequency: Daily is usually fine
Save. Google will fetch your feed within an hour and start reviewing your products.
Step 5 — Wait for approval
Google reviews each product before it can appear in shopping results. This takes a few days the first time. You'll get an email when products are approved (or rejected with a reason).
Common rejection reasons
- Missing or low-quality images — make sure each product has a clear, well-lit photo
- Missing GTIN/MPN — for branded products, Google sometimes needs a barcode. You can mark items as "no identifier" if they're yours alone.
- Misleading price — the price in your feed must match what customers actually pay
- Promotional text in titles — keep titles descriptive ("Cotton T-shirt"), not promotional ("Best deal on T-shirts!")
One feed, three platforms
The same merchant feed URL works for Meta Commerce Manager (Instagram & Facebook Shops) and TikTok Shop too. You can copy the same URL into each platform — no need to set up separate feeds. See Selling on Instagram & Facebook and Listing products on TikTok Shop.