Screen: ShopSite > Merchandising > Google > Product Search > Configure

Configure Google Shopping


Note:
Google Merchant Center is the name of the new tool for submitting product information to Google Shopping (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:

  1. Sign Up for Google Merchant Center
  2. To use FTP, Register your FTP Upload File
  3. Configure ShopSite to use Google Merchant Center
  4. Select the Products to Submit to Google Merchant Center

Sign Up to use Google Merchant Center

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

  1. Go to the Google Merchant Center Sign in Page.
  2. All Google tools, including Google Merchant Center, use the same account for access.

Register your FTP Upload File

To submit your feed to Google Merchant Center using FTP you will need to register your FTP Upload file with Google Merchant Center:

  1. If you are not still signed in to Google Merchant Center, go to the Google Merchant Center Sign in page and sign in.
  2. Follow the prompts for the type of methods you want to use to promote/sell your products.
  3. At the appropriate prompt select that you want to upload your products. This will be done via FTP (not SFTP or any other method). The file name ShopSite defaults to is froogle-bulk.xml.
  4. 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.
  5. Enter an FTP username and password in the appropriate fields (Google may generate these for you). You will enter the username and password into your ShopSite configuration screen. You may need to click on Google's "wrench" icon to set/see the FTP username and password.

Configure ShopSite to use Google Merchant Center

Once you have a Google Merchant Center 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:

FTP User Name
Enter the FTP user name you configured when you Registered your FTP file.
FTP Password
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.

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.
To
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).
CC Addresses
Enter the additional e-mail addresses you want the reminder e-mail sent to.
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.
ID
Google requires a unique ID for the product. It is recommended that you either use ShopSite's internal ID GUID or SKU
Title
Select whether to send the Product name, the SKU, or a Product Field (Product Field 1, Product Field 2, etc.) as the Title of the product on Google Merchant Center.
Description
Select whether to send the Product Description, the More Info Page Text, the More Info Meta:Description, or a Product Field (Product Field 1, Product Field 2, etc.) for Google Merchant Center to use as the product description.
Price
Select what price you want to submit as the list price on Google Merchant Center. Select Regular to submit the regular product Price. If you select On Sale/Lowest, ShopSite will look at the Sale Price and submit the lowest price to Google Merchant Center.

NOTE:If Quantity Pricing is enabled in the back office, ShopSite will also compare the Price and Sale Price of the first row (Starting Quantity of '1') before submitting.
Image
Select whether to send the URL of the Product Image or the More Info Page Image to Google Merchant Center.
Additional Images
Select whether or not to send any additional URLs for the "Extra More Info" images (between 1-10) to Google Merchant Center.
Image Size
Indicate what size to use for the image.
Availability
Select how to send inventory information to Google Merchant Center.
  • Select Use Availability Product Field to send the Availability specified in the Availability product field.
  • Select Use ShopSite Inventory Tracking to send the Availability based on your current Quantity On Hand. Note: Inventory Tracking must be enabled to use this option.
Free Shipping Set the check box if you want products to appear on Google as having free shipping if the "No Shipping Charges" field is set for the product. (See Add a Product or Edit Product for more information on the No Shipping Charges field.)
Send Variant Price Select this if you want to send the Order Option price instead of the product price for produtcts that have Variant Options. For example, Google requires that clothing products have color and size included in the feed. You specify this in the "Google Shopping/Merchant Center Feed" section when you Edit a product.
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.

  1. Go to your Back Office Products screen.
  2. Click on List All Products or Search for the products you want to list on Google Merchant Center.
  3. Select the products you want listed on Google Merchant Center from the list of products and click on Power Edit
  4. Scroll down the Information list and select Google Merchant Center. Check the radio button to set a Global value, then click on Proceed.
  5. 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.

Once you have selected what products to send to Google Merchant Center, you can go to the Froogle/Google Merchant Center screen in your Back Office and Submit your Product Information to Google Merchant Center.

ShopSite Help and Resource Center
Last updated: September 20, 2011
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