Configure Google Product Search/Google Base

Configure Google Product Search/Google Merchant Center

Note:

Google Merchant Center is the name of the new tool for submitting product information to Google Product Search (formerly called Froogle) and to Google's main web search. Throughout ShopSite, the terms Froogle and Google Merchant Center are used interchangably when discussing the product information submission process.

In order to send product information directly from ShopSite to Google Merchant Center, you must do the following:

Before you can submit your product information, you need to create a Google Merchant Center account:

Go to the Google Merchant Center Sign in Page.

All Google tools, including Google Merchant Center, use the same account for access.

If you already use a Google tool (AdWords, Analytics, Gmail, etc.) you can sign in using that account.
If you do not already have a Google account, click the link to Create an account now. After creating a new account, you will be brought back to the Google Merchant Center Sign in page and can sign in using your new account.

The first time you sign in to Google Merchant Center, you will be required to accept the Google Merchant Center Terms of Service. Read through the terms and click the I accept the Google Merchant Center Terms of Service. Continue >> button if you agree to the terms. You must agree to the Terms of Service in order to use Google Merchant Center.

After accepting the Terms of Service, you will be taken to a screen where you can post an individual item. You have finished creating your Google Merchant Center account at this time.

You can select either the API or FTP to submit a feed. If you have a large number of products (a few hundred), or if you frequently encounter problems submitting a feed using the Google Merchant Center API, you should use FTP to submit your feed.

To submit your feed to Google Merchant Center using FTP (instead of the API), you will need to register your FTP Upload file with Google Merchant Center:

If you are not still signed in to Google Merchant Center, go to the Google Merchant Center Sign in page and sign in.

Click the link to Register a new bulk upload file.

On the Specify a bulk upload file screen, enter froogle-bulk.xml in the File name field, then select Products from the Item type pull-down menu. If you are using a Multi-client account, froogle-bulk.xml may not be available. In such cases, write down the file name you use in this step so that ShopSite can be properly configured to use Google Merchant Center.

Click Register bulk upload file and continue to formatting instructions.

ShopSite will create a properly formatted upload file for you, but you may want to read through the formatting instructions for ideas on what sort of attributes you may want to send. When you are ready, scroll to the end of the page and click I'm done formatting my file. Continue to upload..

Click the link on the right side of the screen to Sign Up for FTP uploading.

Enter an FTP username and password in the appropriate fields. You will enter the username and password into your ShopSite configuration screen, but you may want to use information you can remember. Click Create FTP account to continue.

Configure ShopSite to use Google Merchant Center

Once you have a Google Merchant Center API Key or FTP account, you can configure how ShopSite submits product information to Google Merchant Center. Configure the following options on your store's back office Google Merchant Center Configuration screen:

Submittal method

Select whether to use FTP or the Google Merchant Center API to submit your feed. If you have more than a few hundred products or if you are encountering errors submitting via the API, you should use the FTP method.

FTP Method

FTP User Name

If you are using FTP to submit the feed, enter the FTP user name you configured when you Registered your FTP file.

FTP Password

If you are using FTP to submit the feed, enter the FTP password you configured when you Registered your FTP file.

File Name to use for FTP registration

This file name but must be the same as that which was entered when registering an FTP bulk upload file. If you registered a different file name with Google Merchant Center (the default is assumed to be froogle-bulk.xml), change this file name to match.

API Method

Merchant's Account ID for API

If you are using the API submittal method, paste your Google Merchant's Account ID (found on the Merchant Account Dashboard next to the Account Name.) into this field.

Expiration

Items Expire

Select how often you want the Google Merchant Center listings of your products to expire. Expired items will not be searchable until you re-submit them.

Reminder

ShopSite can send you an e-mail reminder that your products are about to expire on Google Merchant Center. Select Yes to have ShopSite send you a reminder. If you do not want an e-mail reminder, select No.

Enter the e-mail address you want the reminder sent to. By default, this is the merchant e-mail address (from your store Preferences > Hosting Service screen).

Subject

Enter the subject to be used for your reminder e-mail.

Message

Enter the message to be used in your reminder e-mail.

Indicate which ShopSite field maps to the corresponding Google Merchant Center field

Select what ShopSite product fields will be mapped to the Google Merchant Center information fields.

Title

Select whether to send the Product name or the SKU as the Title of the product on Google Merchant Center.

Description

Select whether to send the Product Description, the More Info Page Text, or the More Info Meta:Description for Google Merchant Center to use as the product description.

Price

Select what price you want to send as the list price on Google Merchant Center. Select Regular to send the regular product Price. If you select On Sale/Lowest, ShopSite will also look at the Sale Price and Quantity Pricing and send the lowest price to Google Merchant Center.

Image

Select whether to send the URL of the Product Image or the More Info Page Image to Google Merchant Center.

Quantity

Select the radio button to indicate how to send inventory information to Google Merchant Center.

Select the Do not Specify radio button if you do not want a quantity sent.
Select the Use Inventory: Quantity On Hand radio button to send your current Quantity On Hand.
Select the Enter Amount radio button, then enter a number in the text box to send that number as the inventory quantity for all your products.

Weight

Select what weight information to send to Google Merchant Center:

Select Do Not Specify if you do not want a weight sent.
Select Use Product Weight to send the produt's weight.

Product URL (Landing Page)

Select where Google Merchant Center should send people who find your product.

A page the product is assigned to will send people to a page the product appears on.
More Info Page will send people to the product More Information Page.
Search Destination will send people to the same location they would get sent to from a store Search Results page.

Product Type (category)

Google Merchant Center uses the Product Type to create categories for your products. By default, ShopSite will send the product's Froogle/Google (Product Type) value. You may alternately select to have ShopSite send the Page Name of a page the product appears on, or one of the Customizable Product Fields.

Indicate any Attributes That Are To Be Included

Google Merchant Center allows you to assign additional descriptive attributes to your products. When you add or edit a product, there are Google Merchant Center fields for the Brand, Product Type, and Condition. You can use the Customizable Product Fields to add any additional attributes.

Attributes

Check the boxes for the product fields you want to be included as attributes for your product. The customizable field name will be used as the attribute name, and the field itself will be used as the attribute information.

After making changes to your configuration, click on Save to save your settings or Cancel to abandon your changes.

Select the Products to Submit to Google Merchant Center

Before you can Send your Product Information to Google Merchant Center, you need to select which products you want to include in your feed. By default, new products are selected to be included in the feed, so you only need to change the setting for products you don't want submitted.

Go to your Back Office Products screen.

Click on List All Products or Search for the products you want to list on Google Merchant Center.

Select the products you want listed on Google Merchant Center from the list of products and click on Power Edit

Scroll down the Information list and select Google Merchant Center. Check the radio button to set a Global value, then click on Proceed.

Check the box to Include in data feed, then click Save Changes.

The Google Merchant Center checkbox can also be edited when you Add Products or Edit Product Info.