FAQs

Account Setup

Ads/FL/LIA/MHLSF/Analytics

  • How can the Merchant Hosted Local storefront (MHLSF) be implemented through the Local Feeds Partnership (LFP)?
    • The merchant hosted local storefront represents only a single merchant's local storefront information. It lets you direct customers to your website when they click your local inventory ads and free local product listings By directing customers to your website instead of your Google-hosted local storefront, you can manage and track your customers' entire experience.

Feature Type

User experience

Shopping annotation displayed

Shopping behavior on "see what's in-store"

Full

Clicking on a local inventory ad or a free local listing redirects to a product landing page that displays an item's availability at a specific store.

Users are shown a distance annotation (for example, "3.5 mi") which shows the distance to a store where they can purchase the item.

Clicking on a local product in "see what's in-store" direct customers to a Google-hosted local storefront.

Basic

Clicking on a local inventory ad or a free local listing redirects to a product landing page where customers can check the item's availability at a store nearby.

Users are shown the "in-store" annotation which communicates that the item is available for purchase at a store nearby.

Clicking on a local product in "see what's in-store" directs customers to a Google-hosted local storefront.
  • Does the merchant have to give the LFP access to their Adwords account if they intend to manage the account themselves?
    • No, the merchant does not have to give you access to their Adwords if you are not going to manage their account for them. To link adwords and merchant center follow this article
  • Does the merchant have to give the LFP access to their Business Profiles account if they intend to manage the account themselves?
    • If you are planning to use pos.inventory, the correct store ID needs to be passed. This store ID is assigned in the Business Profile section for that particular store. Identifying those store ids likely requires some access to the Merchant's Business Profile account unless the merchant provides that information directly to the LFP provider". Guidelines To link Business Profiles article
  • How can I use Google Analytics to measure the performance of the Google Hosted Local storefront?

Data Setup & Structure

  • Can I use a feed file versus an API?
    • The major benefit of using the Content API for Shopping is that it lets efficiently manage large amounts of inventory, complex account settings and shipping settings, all through automation. Some benefits include:
      • It lets manage the structured data uploaded to Google for use in Google properties, such as Shopping Ads and Google Search.
      • API is less resource intensive as it only sends incremental updates versus full refreshes of data daily.
      • APIs are more real time and provide faster data updates that can reduce incorrect stock status.
      • APIs can handle many processes of setting up sub accounts while feeds have to be set up manually.

  • How do I submit data to Google?

    • Create a Merchant Center account (ideally a subaccount under your MCA) and share that Merchant Center ID with Google. The Google Team would then enable that account for the POS capabilities. This enables the POS inventory feed

    • To submit the data you would have to use one of two types of feeds (or APIs). The inventory or sale feed. API equivalents: inventory and sale feeds

    • The sale feed adds some modeling on our end and could improve accuracy, but it might result in more inventory being set as out of stock.

  • What Products can I upload to Google?

    • Tangible items that are available for immediate purchase are allowed. However, they must meet your guidelines to be able to be posted. Learn more.

  • Which attributes are required for non-matched GTINs?

    • If you wanted to also use the products for which you don't have any GTIN data you would have to submit a primary feed or by leveraging this Content API directly in a retailer's account.

    Note that the following attributes are required for apparel:

    • ID
    • title
    • description
    • image_link
    • condition
    • gtin
    • brand

  • Do I have to send actual Quantity on Hand for each item for each store?

    • Yes, the quantity attribute (the number of units available for a particular offer) must be included to display accurate information to the user

  • How can the link_template attribute be submitted using the products API?

    • You can add the link_template as a CustomAttribute object within the CustomAttributes list field as a part of the products endpoint.

  • What data and how often should I be sending product data and inventory and pricing data?

    • Product data should be sent at minimum every 30 days.
    • Inventory and pricing data expire every14 days and a daily refresh with the offers change delta is recommended To optimize refresh updates, prioritize offers that change in price and quantity change that would make the offers go from in_stock to out_of_stock and conversely.
    • If using the sales feed we recommend updating this feed at least daily. Upload at least 60 days worth of sales data in your first upload.
    • The store feed maps your store codes to store addresses. This feed is optional and it should be only used if you can't link merchants to their Google Business Profile in Merchant Center. This feed must be also updated and uploaded when you add new retailers or stores to the program.

  • Does the GTIN matching of this feed also provide automatic translations into these languages when serving?

    • That is correct, as it stands now you would need to have a separate API call if the target country (like Canada) has two relevant languages.

  • Does targetCountry and contentLanguage have to match? is it going to have any bearing on the "See What's in Store" module?

    • Yes it does, for example, when setting the browser language to Canadian French the UI as well as the offer title and descriptions are displayed in French (title and description don't get automatically translated, unlike the UI - meaning that if the language is one of the official languages in the relevant country and the merchant is submitting products in that language those offers seem to get displayed if a user is using the same language in their browser).
    • "See What's in Store" (SWIS) should always be available no matter what browser language is used. If it is one of the languages the merchant submits product data for Google use that but if that language is not available ig defaultx to English. Elements of the "Google Hosted Local Store Front" UI however are changed depending on the browser language. So if looking at a SWIS in Canada with German set as language in the Browser English offers are displayed but the UI continues to be displayed in German.

  • I have uploaded my 1st feed and everything is showing as disapproved. Now what?

    • The first time pos.inventory is called, the GTIN's need to match to Google's product catalog. This can cause a 24-48 hour delay until you see your offers pending at the merchant center. If you are a trusted partner, offers are automatically approved straight after.

  • When are my ads become approved?

    • Offers stay pending until that merchant has passed inventory checks or, if you are a trusted partner, until the pipeline has finished processing the offers (usually within 24/48 hours)

  • Which API can I use to retrieve the status of products?

  • Which API can I use to link Business Profiles?

  • What is the rate limit for the pos.inventory API? How many SKUs can be included in a single request and within what timeframe?

    • Content API Limits
    • For CustomBatch, a way to send multiple entries in one single request, the quota is consumed based on the entries of the batch. If a batch has 100 entries of pos.sale and 300 pos.inventory, the API consumes 100 from pos.sale quota and 300 from pos.inventory quota.

  • What is the typical response time for the pos.inventory API?

    • Should be near instantaneous between the HTTP POST and the response of the POST.

  • What is the expiration time for the token? What is the recommended frequency for regenerating the token?

    • 1 hour you need to refresh the OAuth access token by using the refresh token that they obtained. More Details Here

  • What is the purpose of the "item_id" field? How does it differ from the "gtin" value? Does the "item_id" correspond to a Child SKU or a Parent SKU?

    • Item_id' is an internal identifier for your merchant. It can correspond to any internal product code or identifier. Item ID is used only for the merchant so they can identify their own item in relation to the GTIN. Some retailers use the GTIN as their Item Ids and some don't. This field should be whatever the retailer knows what to look for inventory checks or if a customer calls asking.
    • GTIN is the UPC or EAN code, and a GTIN assigned by the manufacturer. Only provide a GTIN if you are sure it is correct. When in doubt don't provide a GTIN.

  • Is google_product_category a necessary field?

    • Google product category is optional and usually entered to override the automatically given value

Inventory Checks

  • How are inventory checks performed?
    • Once feeds have been uploaded and the account is ready, the LFP partner request checks with their BD partner. A Google representative requests checks to be initiated by our support team and reach out to the Inventory Verification contacts in MC when the provider specifies they are ready for the checks.
    • The Google Support team schedules time with the store manager (or inventory specialist) to conduct these checks.
    • Checks are done with 3 stores max per merchant, The number of checks is determined by your landing page experience. Further details.
    • During these checks up to 100 products per store are checked. Our team is looking to confirm that if the item is in stock when the feed reports it in stock, and out of stock when the feed marks out of stock.
    • The store representative also needs to photograph some products, clearly showing the product label and shelf price or price tag.
    • The entire inventory verification process takes approximately 2 hours per store. The survey form must be completed within the same business day. Once you have completed the inventory verification, submit the survey to transfer the results.
  • How is Trusted Partner Status achieved
  • When are my ads approved?
    • Offers stay pending until that merchant has passed inventory checks.
  • My retailers have high traffic and high volume items. Is this going to affect inventory checks?
    • It's understandable that there are high traffic, high volume items in stores and keeping accurate on hands for things such as warm food can be difficult. Google attempt to discern whether the feed is showing the item is in or out of stock, rather than the exact quantity available.
    • For food items that are difficult to provide a quantity for we usually advise setting a quantity of "1". In the case of perishable products that are updated daily, ideally, update availability as soon as it changes.
  • Do Merchant Hosted Local Store Front (MHLSF) stores need inventory checks?
    • MHLSF stores don't need inventory checks. Instead, a check of the website is conducted to confirm that the website meets the requirements of MHLSF full or basic. Once you start uploading for MHLSF, there is a further manual review which can take 3-4 days to complete. No further checks are necessary as MHLSF provides confirmation of in-store availability.
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