Create and set up a merchant account

You need to have a Merchant Center Account to use the Merchant API. You can use the Merchant Center UI to create it.

If you need to manage multiple accounts, you can create sub-accounts using Merchant API.

You can configure your account in the Merchant Center UI or through the API as described later.

Accept the Merchant Center Terms of Service

All merchants must accept the Merchant Center Terms of Service. Here's how to accept the Terms of Service for your own merchant account:

  1. Call accounts.termsOfServiceAgreementStates.retrieveForApplication to find out which Terms of Service are required for your account.

    Here's a sample request:

    GET https://merchantapi.googleapis.com/accounts/v1beta/accounts/{ACCOUNT_ID}/termsOfServiceAgreementStates:retrieveForApplication
    

    Here's a sample response from a successful call:

    {
        "name": "accounts/{ACCOUNT_ID}/termsOfServiceAgreementStates/MERCHANT_CENTER-{COUNTRY}",
        "regionCode": {COUNTRY},
        "termsOfServiceKind": "MERCHANT_CENTER",
        "accepted": {
          "termsOfService": "termsOfService/{VERSION}",
          "acceptedBy": "accounts/{ACCOUNT_ID}"
        }
    }
    
  2. Call termsOfService.accept to accept the Terms of Service.

    Here's a sample request:

    GET https://merchantapi.googleapis.com/accounts/v1beta/{name=termsOfService/{VERSION}}:accept
    

    If successful, the response body will be empty.

We recommend building a UI where you display the TOS to the merchant, and ask them to accept.

  1. Find the TOS the merchant needs to accept using termsOfService.retrieveLatest with the regionCode of the business.

    Here's a sample request:

    GET https://merchantapi.googleapis.com/accounts/v1beta/termsOfService:retrieveLatest
    

    Here's a sample response from a successful call:

    {
        "name": "termsOfService/{VERSION}",
        "regionCode": "{COUNTRY}",
        "kind": "MERCHANT_CENTER",
        "fileUri": "{URI}"
    }
    
  2. Display the TOS from the fileUri to the merchant.

  3. When the merchant accepts the TOS in your UI, call termsOfService.accept with the name of the TOS to accept.

After the merchant accepts the TOS, you can use Merchant API to set up the rest of their account information. For details about what account information you can manage with the Merchant Accounts API, see the Account resource.

Claim your website

You can use the Merchant Accounts API to add and claim your business's Homepage.

  1. To add a homepage to your account, call accounts.updateHomepage with a Homepage resource containing your homepage URL.
  2. To claim ownership of the homepage, call accounts.homepage.claim with the name from your Hompeage resource.

You can't use Merchant API to verify your homepage. For more information, see Verify and claim your store's website.

Update your business details

You can use the Merchant Accounts API to edit your business PostalAddress, CusomerService, and BusinessIdentity.

Business identity:

What's next