A guide on setting up a Google Shopping feed

This guide explains each step of the process of creating a Google Shopping feed in Channable. Follow these steps and all the linked articles to create your feed, categorize and optimize your product data, and finally, to activate your feed. 

Contents

• Step 1: Create a new Google Shopping Feed
• Step 2: Categorize your products
• Step 3: Map the necessary attributes
• Step 4: Create rules to enrich, filter, and refine your product data
• Step 5: Check and improve your feed quality
• Step 6: Preview and activate your Google Shopping feed
• Step 7: Upload your feed in Google Merchant Center

Step 1: Create a new Google Shopping Feed

1. Navigate to Channels and click + Create channel.
2. Select "Google Shopping". In the pop up, select the option Feed.
   
3. Next, fill in your Feed name
4. Select your Target country from the dropdown.
   
   Tip: The country that you select is fixed, which means that if you want to sell your products in another country, you need to create a new feed and select that country at this step.  
5. Select the Type of market, which is the specific category or sector of the retail market for your products. For example, 'Books' or 'Fashion'. 
   
   Tip: Choose the Type of market carefully, as the the fields that you need to complete in the Mapping step are very different per market type. For example, if you select 'Fashion', you need to fill fields such as 'size' and 'material'. You can change the market type later in the feed settings if you choose the wrong one.
6. Click on Advanced settings to edit settings such as 'Master rule'.
7. Once you have completed your feed settings, click Continue. 

Step 3: Map the necessary attributes 

To list your products on Google Shopping successfully, you must make sure that your product data has all of the mandatory attributes. 

Create and map new data fields

Check the field mapping of your product data in  Setup > Import > [Added import] > Edit mapping. If you have errors here, you need to create the new fields. This will help you to connect your product data fields to the Google Shopping fields.

If you create new fields, the newly created fields must be connected with the corresponding Google field:

1. Go to Feeds > [Your Google Shopping feed]. 
2. Go to the Mapping step.
3. Look for the 'Channel field name' you want to match (e.g. g:color) and click on the dropdown field in the 'Internal field' column
4. Find the field you just created inside Project fields and select it.

Map your data fields with Google Shopping’s attributes 

If your import fields are already aligned with Google's expected format, you need to map the internal fields to Google's fields by following these steps:

1. Go to the [Your Google Shopping feed] and click on the Mapping tab. 
2. Match each Google Shopping field ('Channel field name') with the corresponding field from your data ('Internal field').
   Note: Make sure the data in your internal field corresponds with the format Google requires. For example, for 'availability', Google only accepts the values in_stock, out_of_stock, preorder, or backorder. Check the 'Description' column for value and format suggestions.