Feed Tools, Templates and the Content API- How to Send Product Data

Google Merchant Center is the place your product data has to reach before Google can show your products, and there are three practical ways to send that data. One of them fits your store. In Google's own words, Merchant Center lets you upload and manage your product data so your products appear across Google Search, Maps, YouTube and more.

If you run a Shopify store without a developer, the choice can look harder than it is. Many guides still tell you to use the Content API. Google has switched it off and replaced it with the Merchant API, so any guide that sends you there is out of date.

This guide gives you a pick and shows where each method tends to fail, so you can check your product feed before it reaches Google Shopping. The short verdict by store size comes first.

The short answer

The Google & YouTube app on Shopify syncs the products available in your online store to Google Merchant Center and keeps syncing them when any information changes, which makes it the default pick for a Shopify store without a developer. Use a different method only when your catalogue, your fields or your team point to one of the cases below.

• A Google Sheets template or file feed suits a small catalogue that rarely changes. Google points to its Sheets template if you are looking for a template to share product details.

• Choose a feed app or product feed generator when you need to rewrite fields across many products or send the same feed to several channels.

• The Merchant API is for stores with a developer and a large or fast-changing catalogue. Google strongly recommends it for large numbers of products or frequent changes.

• Whichever you pick, patch weak fields with a supplemental data source instead of replacing your method.

Before comparing the methods, it helps to know what a product feed is.

What a product feed is, and where Google uses it

A product feed is a structured list of your products, one row per item, with fields such as id, title, price, availability and link, and it is the data Google Merchant Center uses to show your products across Google Search and other Google surfaces. Merchant Center now calls each feed a "data source", so you will see both terms.

Google lists seven attributes that every product must carry:

• id, title and description

• link and image_link

• availability and price

Brand is also required for most new products. MPN (manufacturer part number) is only needed when a product has no GTIN. Google caps the title at 150 characters and the description at 5,000 characters.

Price is a number followed by the ISO 4217 currency code. Google's own example is 15.00 USD; a UAE store uses AED. Only prices for the US and Canada leave tax out, so a UAE price must include VAT.

The same data now reaches more than Shopping results. Shopify's help page states that product discovery in Google AI Mode and Google Gemini is powered by Google Merchant Center, through the Google & YouTube sales channel, a third-party feed provider, or a manual upload to Merchant Center. Google describes its Shopping Graph as a catalogue of over 60 billion product listings, and Merchant Center is where you control how your own products are described to Google.

Until recently, one of the ways to send this data was the Content API.

The Content API is switched off: what replaced it

The Content API for Shopping, Google's old programming interface for sending product data to Merchant Center, has reached its sunset, and the Merchant API has replaced it. Shopify stores using the Google & YouTube app do not need to do anything.

Google's sunset page for the Content API for Shopping sets out what happens next. Requests to the Content API without an extension fail intermittently with an HTTP 410 Gone error, and the failures become more frequent over time. Google then turns down every endpoint, after which all requests fail. Google tells all developers to move their existing connections to the Merchant API, which is now generally available.

Whether this affects you depends on how your product data reaches Google:

• Shopify store on the Google & YouTube app: no action. Google says developers on a third-party e-commerce platform do not need to act, because the platform partner handles the migration.

• If you send a Google Sheets feed, a scheduled fetch or a file upload, you are not affected; Producthero notes that file feeds are not part of the Content API change.

• Custom code that still calls the Content API is affected and needs moving to the Merchant API.

To check yours, open the list of data sources in Google Merchant Center. Producthero gives the test: if your primary product data source is listed as Content API, a migration is required.

That leaves three methods that work today.

Three ways to send product data: template, app or Merchant API

Google Merchant Center accepts product data six ways, according to Google's help page, and three of them are practical for a Shopify store: a Google Sheets template or file, an app, or the Merchant API. The other three are automatic collection from your website's structured data, adding products one by one in the product editor, and platform connections.

A product feed generator is a tool that builds the feed from your store's data. Before you pay for one to manage your Google Shopping feed, check whether it sends your products through the Merchant API or as a file, because that decides how fast changes reach Google.

Which one you choose comes down to catalogue size and how often your prices change.

Pick by store size and platform

The right method depends on two things: how many products you sell and how often prices and stock change. For a Shopify store without a developer, the default route to Google Shopping is the Google & YouTube app; the Merchant API makes sense only with a developer and a large or fast-changing catalogue.

• Shopify store of any size with no developer: use the Google & YouTube app.

• For a small catalogue that rarely changes, or a custom-coded store with no app, a Google Sheets template can work. How small is a judgement call. Bright Bid, a feed tool vendor, limits Sheets to a static catalogue of fewer than 50 products, while Store Growers suggests moving to an automated source past a few hundred products or once prices change daily. Treat both as rules of thumb, not Google rules.

• If you need to rewrite titles or fill fields across many products, or feed several sales channels, add a feed app, or a supplemental data source on top of the Google & YouTube app.

• Large or fast-changing catalogue, with a developer: the Merchant API, which Google recommends for large numbers of products or frequent changes.

• A WordPress or custom-coded store has no Shopify app, so the options are a file or Google Sheets feed, a feed tool, or the Merchant API.

• Selling to more than one country, for example the UAE and Saudi Arabia, means each country is its own data source. Google notes that existing attribute rules do not transfer automatically to a new country data source in the Google & YouTube app, so copy them across by hand.

Each of these methods also fails in its own way, and those failures are what get products rejected.

Where each method breaks

Every method fails in a predictable place: most rejections come from product data that is missing, wrong, or older than the price on your website. The table shows where each method tends to get products rejected and the Google rule behind it.

On GTINs, Google's advice is short: when in doubt, don't provide this attribute. A product with no GTIN can use MPN and brand instead, but a wrong GTIN gets the product disapproved. If a required attribute is missing, the product cannot serve in ads or free listings.

After each change, check disapprovals in your Google Merchant Center dashboard and in the Google & YouTube app. For price mismatches, Google says it recrawls the affected products over the next few hours or days and reapproves them if the prices match.

You can fix these fields without replacing the method you use.

Fix weak fields with a supplemental data source

A supplemental data source is a second, smaller file that adds or overrides chosen fields on products already in Google Merchant Center, row by row, matched on id, so you can fix fields without replacing the app or your main feed. Google recommends a supplemental data source for adding its conversational attributes, and the same file can carry corrected titles or GTINs.

Setting one up takes four steps:

1. List the ids of the products you want to fix and the field you want to change.

2. Build a short template in Google Sheets: an id column plus that one field.

3. In Merchant Center Next, turn on the "Advanced data source management" add-on first. Without it, the file is added as a primary source and creates empty products.

4. Add the file as a supplemental source with the same feed label and language as your main source, then check for rows that return "Offer does not exist".

Those two traps come from a field report by Simple Product Feeds, a feed-app vendor, based on one 102-product catalogue. In that report, "Offer does not exist" appeared when an id was excluded or unpublished in the primary source. Keep to one supplemental source per country and language, because the feed label and language must match a primary source. A store on the Google & YouTube app can keep the app running while the supplemental file does the fixing.

The same route is how Google says to add the newer fields that AI shopping surfaces read.

The AI-shopping fields a basic feed leaves out

Google's conversational attributes are six newer, optional Google Merchant Center fields for AI surfaces such as AI Mode in Search: question_and_answer, document_link, related_product, item_group_title, variant_option and popularity_rank. A feed built to Google's required attributes alone carries none of them, because Google calls all six completely optional.

You can add Google's six through a supplemental data source, which Google recommends, through your primary data source, or through the Merchant API. Tool support varies: Channable says its Google template supports all six, so check whether your feed tool or app does before you rely on it.

ChatGPT. OpenAI's product feed is open to approved partners. It is pushed by SFTP as a full snapshot at least once a day, in parquet, jsonl.gz, csv.gz or tsv.gz format, and its nine required fields are item_id, title, description, url, brand, seller_name, image_url, availability and price. OpenAI says the standard upload currently targets the US. For Shopify stores, products reach ChatGPT through Shopify Catalog, and Shopify requires the store to sell to customers in the United States, although the store itself can be based outside the US.

Google AI Mode and Google Gemini. Shopify says product discovery there is powered by Google Merchant Center. Checkout inside them through Shopify needs a store based in the United States that sells to US customers; shoppers elsewhere can still discover your products and are sent to your store. Google and Shopify have announced the Universal Commerce Protocol, an open standard for agentic commerce, presented as the counterpart to OpenAI's Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP).

Out-of-date field lists. If a guide names popularity_score, return_rate, or video and 3D-model links as OpenAI fields, it describes an earlier version of the spec, as reported by Search Engine Land. OpenAI's current reference does not list them, and states: "Raw review entries and question-and-answer lists are not part of this discovery contract."

These fields matter because AI answers already sit on top of feed searches: Google AI Overviews appeared on every feed search checked for this guide. A few common questions come up before setting any of this up, starting with cost.

FAQ

Is Google Merchant Center free?

Google Merchant Center is free to use, and Shopify calls it a free tool. You pay only if you run Shopping ads, which go through a separate Google Ads account. Eligible products synced by the Google & YouTube app can also appear in free listings on the Shopping tab.

How do I connect Google Merchant Center with Shopify?

The Google & YouTube app from the Shopify App Store connects your Shopify store to Google Merchant Center:

1. Install the app.

2. Connect your Merchant Center account, and Google Ads if you plan to run ads.

3. Choose the countries to sync. Your products then sync, and keep syncing as they change.

What is the difference between Google Ads and Google Merchant Center?

Google Merchant Center holds and checks your product data. Google Ads uses that data to run paid campaigns such as Performance Max. You can use Merchant Center on its own to appear in free listings on Google Shopping.

Is Google Shopping available in the UAE?

Google Shopping is available in the United Arab Emirates. Google Merchant Center lists the UAE as a supported country, with prices in AED and the Shopping tab available. Price your products in AED with VAT included, and keep attribute names in English.