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Delivery [shipping]

A custom icon for Merchant Center Classic and Merchant Center Next.

The delivery [shipping] attribute lets you provide delivery speed and cost for a product. Use this attribute when the delivery settings aren't defined at the account level in Merchant Center or if you wish to override the account-level delivery settings for individual products.

For example, you can use the delivery [shipping] attribute to override your delivery settings for bulky or fragile products.

In this article

When to use

This icon represents whether the sourced content is dependent where the product attribute is used It depends: You may or may not need to submit this attribute depending on the product or the countries in which your products are shown.

Delivery covers the cost charged by a delivery carrier or other costs directly related to delivery. A charge is considered to be a delivery cost if it includes the words 'handling', 'delivery', 'shipping', 'logistics' or 'carrier'. Delivery can include cross-border charges if the cost is included under a delivery term on your website. Delivery should also include insurance costs related to any of the five terms above.

Delivery also covers speed or the time from when a customer places an order to when they receive it. Delivery speed includes both handling time (sometimes referred to as processing time) and transit time. Handling time is the time from when an order is placed to when it's handed off to the delivery carrier. Transit time is the time from when an order has been handed off to a delivery carrier to when the customer receives it.

Delivery speed and cost are the most common reasons for users abandoning their shopping choices, so showing accurate information can help the performance of your ads and free listings.

The delivery [shipping] attribute can also be used to specify the countries to which your product can be delivered for programmes that don't require delivery costs.

Delivery costs can be provided via the delivery [shipping] attribute or at the account level.

RequiredDelivery costs are required for Shopping ads and free listings for any of the following countries:

  • Australia
  • Austria
  • Belgium
  • Brazil
  • Canada
  • Czechia
  • Denmark
  • Finland
  • France
  • Germany
  • Greece
  • Hungary
  • India
  • Ireland
  • Israel
  • Italy
  • Japan
  • New Zealand
  • The Netherlands
  • Norway
  • Poland
  • Portugal
  • Romania
  • Slovakia
  • South Korea
  • Spain
  • Sweden
  • Switzerland
  • The United Kingdom
  • The United States

You may be required to provide delivery costs in additional countries based on local laws or regulations.

Use this attribute to specify additional countries that your product can be delivered to.

Also use this attribute when delivery costs for your product are not defined in Merchant Center or when you need to override the delivery settings that you set up in Merchant Center, such as for bulky or fragile products.

Sub-attributes

The delivery [shipping] attribute uses sub-attributes to define country, delivery area, service, price, handling time and transit time.

These are the various sub-attributes:

  • Country [country] (required)
    The country that the product can be delivered to. Submit an ISO 3166-1 country code (for example: CH).

  • Delivery area (optional)
    To specify where your product can be delivered, submit one (and only one) of the following:
    1. Region [region] (optional)
      Submit a region, state, territory or prefecture. This is supported for Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, India, Japan, New Zealand and the United States. Submit a subdivision code from the ISO 3166-2 code tables (AU, BR, FR DE, IN, JP, NZ, US) without country prefix (e.g. NSW, RJ, ARA, BE, AP, 03, AUK, NY).
    2. Postcode [postal_code] (optional)
      Submit a postcode range. This is supported for Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, New Zealand and the United States.
      • Use a ZIP or postcode (e.g. 94043 for the US and 2009 for Australia).
      • Use a range of postcodes (e.g. 94002–95460 for the US and 2009–3000 Australia).
      • Use a range of postcodes using a prefix with a wildcard ( * ) (e.g. 94*).
      • Use a range of postcodes using two prefixes with wildcards ( * ) (e.g. 94*–95*).

      Brazil

      Use codes before the hyphen (e.g. if the postcode is 30260–070, use 30260).

      Canada

      • Use the postcode forward sortation area (FSA) identifier and don't include local delivery unit (e.g. M5H).
      • Use a range of FSAs using a prefix with a wildcard ( * ) (for example, K*).

      The United Kingdom

      Use the outward code (e.g. if the postcode is N1C 4AG, use N1C).

    3. Location ID [location_id] (optional)
      Submit a numeric criteria ID of your location defined by Google Ads API (AdWords API) (e.g. for California use 21137). This is supported for Australia (state), Brazil (state), France (region), Germany (state), India (state and territory), Japan (prefecture), New Zealand (region) and the United States (state).

    4. Location group name [location_group_name] (optional)
      Submit a location group that you have set up in your 'Region' settings in Merchant Center. Use the 'Region ID' for the location group name. Use those group names here (e.g. West Coast, Outback). This is supported for Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States.

  • Service [service] (optional)
    • Use this sub-attribute if you have multiple delivery options for a single location. For example, 'Standard' and 'Express' delivery options.
  • Price [price] (required to provide delivery speed overrides, otherwise optional)
    • Submit a fixed delivery cost and use a full stop [.] as the decimal separator (e.g. 3.00 GBP). Avoid commas [,] to ensure that the price is interpreted correctly.
If you submit the price [price] sub-attribute of the delivery [shipping] attribute, the account delivery service settings (including delivery times and minimum order value) will be ignored for the matching location for that product.
  • Handling time (optional)
    To specify how long a product may spend in handling, submit the following sub-attributes:

You can also use the standalone handling time attributes instead of the delivery handling time sub-attributes. If you use both the handling time sub-attributes and the standalone handling time attributes, only the delivery sub-attributes are considered.

Use working days. For example, if a customer orders on Tuesday and the delivery leaves the warehouse on Friday at the latest, the maximum handling time is three days.

  • Transit time (optional)
    To specify how long a product may spend in transit, submit the following sub-attributes:
    • Minimum transit time [min_transit_time]
      This is the minimum number of days between when a product is handed off to a delivery carrier and when it's delivered to the customer.
    • Maximum transit time [max_transit_time]
      This is the maximum number of days between when a product is handed off to a delivery carrier and when it's delivered to the customer.
Note: For Google to calculate delivery speed, you must provide values for both the maximum handling time [max_handling_time], either the sub-attribute of delivery or the standalone attribute, and the maximum transit time [max_transit_time] sub-attribute of the delivery [shipping] attribute. You must also submit a value for the price [price] sub-attribute of the delivery [shipping] attribute for your handling time and transit time sub-attributes to be considered valid.

Format

Follow these formatting guidelines to make sure that Google understands the data that you're submitting. Learn how to submit attributes and attribute values.

Type Unicode characters (recommended: ASCII only)
Supported values

For AUD, CAD, CHF, EUR, GBP, NZD, SGD, USD:
0–1,000

For RO:
0–3,000

For AED, BRL, CNY, DKK, HKD, ILS, MYR, NOK, PLN, SAR, SEK, TRY:
0–5,000

For ARS, CZK, MXN, THB, TWD, UAH, ZAR:
0–20,000

For INR, JPY, PHP, RUB:
0–100,000

For KRW:
0–1,000,000

For HUF
0–300,000

For CLP:
0–500,000

For COP:
0–2,000,000

For IDR:
0–10,000,000

For VND:
0–20,000,000

Repeated field

(What is this?)

 Submit the delivery [shipping] attribute up to 100 times per product

Schema.org property

(What is this?)

Offer.shippingDetails

Type: OfferShippingDetails (Supported properties)
File format Example entry
Text feeds

Format the name by including which sub-attributes that you're submitting. Include delivery [shipping] and then, in brackets, add the names of the sub-attributes that you want to submit separated by a colon ( : ).

For example, to submit country, postcode, price, handling time and transit time:

Name

delivery(country:postal_code:price:min_handling_time:max_handling_time:
min_transit_time:max_transit_time)

If you name the sub-attributes that you're using, you can provide them to us in any order. However, if you provide sub-attribute values but do not name them, we'll assume that your attribute values include sub-attributes in this order:

  1. Country [country]
  2. Region [region]
  3. Service [service]
  4. Price [price]

Format the value by submitting the value of each sub-attribute listed in the same order as in the name and separated with a colon ( : ). Don't use quotation marks. For example:

Name delivery(country:postal_code:price:min_handling_time:max_handling_time:
min_transit_time:max_transit_time)
Possible value US:80302:6.49 USD:1:3:2:5

To submit multiple locations, submit the attribute (with the same name) multiple times. For example:

Name delivery(country:postal_code:price:min_handling_time:max_handling_time:
min_transit_time:max_transit_time)
Possible value US:94002-95460:0 USD:1:3:2:5

Name delivery(country:postal_code:price)
Possible value US:900*-901*:15.99 USD

If you don't want to provide an optional sub-attribute for a particular product, then still add a colon ( : ), but leave the text blank. For example:

Name shipping
Possible value US:::6.49 USD

Name delivery(country:region:price)
Possible value US::6.49 USD
XML feeds

Include the optional sub-attributes if you need them. To specify a delivery cost for different delivery locations, submit the delivery [shipping] attribute multiple times including the relevant sub-attributes for each.

<g:shipping>

<g:country>GB</g:country>

<g:region>London</g:region>

<g:service>Ground</g:service>

<g:price>6.49 GBP</g:price>

<g:min_handling_time>1</g:min_handling_time>

<g:max_handling_time>3</g:max_handling_time>

<g:min_transit_time>2</g:min_transit_time>

<g:max_transit_time>5</g:max_transit_time>

</g:shipping>

<g:shipping>

<g:country>GB</g:country>

<g:region>London</g:region>

<g:service>Express</g:service>

<g:price>15.99 GBP</g:price>

<g:min_handling_time>1</g:min_handling_time>

<g:max_handling_time>3</g:max_handling_time>

<g:min_transit_time>2</g:min_transit_time>

<g:max_transit_time>5</g:max_transit_time>

</g:shipping>

To format your data for Content API, see the Content API for Shopping resource.

Note: To ensure that this product data attribute is recognised by our system correctly, remember to submit your data feed file in a format that we support.

Minimum requirements

These are the requirements that you'll need to meet to show your product. If you don't follow these requirements, we'll disapprove your product and let you know in your Merchant Center account.

  • Submit complete and correct delivery information, including speed and costs.
  • Delivery speed and cost are two of the most common reasons why shoppers abandon a product, so be sure that your delivery settings are accurate and up to date to make your ads and listings effective.
    • Include all relevant delivery charges. Include all charges for a purchase that include the words 'shipping', 'delivery', 'handling', 'logistics' or 'carrier'.
    • Overestimate if you can't provide an accurate delivery cost. Match or overestimate the cost that users would pay. Please note that overestimating excessively may negatively impact your product performance.
  • Use the rate for delivery directly to an individual. Don't use other rates such as the rate for delivery to a shop or a rate that requires a membership to be applicable.
  • Display product details on your landing page to all users. Ensure when a user clicks your ad, they can view details about your product, even if you don't deliver to the user's location.
  • Comply with local laws when submitting delivery information.
  • Provide the country sub-attribute. Always provide the country [country] sub-attribute of the delivery [shipping] attribute to ensure that your products are dispatched correctly.

Best practices

These best practices can help you to go beyond the basic requirements to optimise your product data for performance.

  • Use account delivery settings in Merchant Center. With these settings you can create simple flat rates or complex, custom models. Use the delivery [shipping] attribute as a last resort to override the settings that you create in Merchant Center.
  • Submit a shipping price that can be represented in your target country's currency (according to ISO 4217). For example, instead of 1.0012 USD, submit 1.01 USD. If your price can't be represented in your target country's currency, then we'll round it to a value that can.
  • If you submit the attribute multiple times, avoid submitting conflicting information. For example, don't submit two different prices for the same region or the same service class.
  • Submit delivery promotions through the promotions feed. For example, if you're offering free delivery for a two-week summer sale, upload a delivery promotion in the merchant promotion feed and enter the dates that it is valid for. Using the code will give consumers free delivery when they check out on the website.
  • Submit all additional charges that you charge as a merchant and that are not government-imposed. Include the charges that aren't related to delivery but are relevant for the purchase during checkout. For example, service, processing, activation and handling charges. Don't submit this information as part of the tax [tax] or price [price] attributes; instead, bundle them with the delivery cost in the delivery [shipping] attribute, or using the Merchant Center delivery settings.
  • Do not include government-imposed fees such as import duties, recycling fees, copyright fees or state-specific retail delivery fees in the delivery cost.
  • Submit delivery costs for any region that you deliver to. If you don't submit a delivery cost for a region that you deliver to, either in your product data or through your account delivery settings, your product or account could be disapproved.
  • Align your Shopping campaigns in Google Ads with your delivery settings and the availability of your product.
Note: If your primary data feed is for a country where delivery is mandatory and you also sell in a country where it's not (and have therefore not submitted delivery information), your product may still display a 'price + delivery charges' annotation when shown on the Shopping tab in the country for which you have not provided delivery information. To avoid a 'price + delivery charges' annotation, make sure that you're only selling in countries where delivery is not mandatory.

Additional guidelines

Review each section closely to determine whether the requirements apply to your country or product. If you don't follow requirements that apply to you, we'll disapprove your product and let you know in your Merchant Center account.

The United States

For the state of Colorado, don't include any retail delivery fee in your product feed. Therefore, a retail delivery fee shouldn't be included in delivery [shipping], price [price], tax [tax] or any other attribute. Learn more about Colorado retail delivery fee.

Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom
  • Delivery to collections points is available only at account level and delivery costs should also be submitted at the account level.
Argentina, Chile
  • Submit the delivery cost for a user's address, a collection point or click and collect.

France

  • Delivery costs must be added for any book sales in France.
Exclude delivery destinations
  • Match availability on your landing page with the delivery settings in your product data. If you don't deliver your products across the entire target country, only submit delivery costs for the regions that you deliver to.
Delivery from outside the target country
  • Prominently state on your landing page that additional customs-related fees may apply. For example, add a disclaimer during checkout so that users are aware of these fees before they place the order. Don't submit import- or export-related information as part of the tax or price attributes.
Software subscriptions and downloads
  • Submit delivery costs as 0 (if delivery cost is required for your target country) when advertising intangible products such as software subscriptions, digital content or downloadable software. You can submit delivery cost through the delivery [shipping] attribute or through your account's delivery settings.

Examples

Text formatting

To format the name, include shipping and then in brackets add the names of the sub-attributes that you're submitting, separated by a colon ( : ).

For example, to submit country [country], postcode [postal_code] and price [price]:

Name shipping(country:postal_code:price)

Format the value by submitting the value of each sub-attribute listed in the same order as in the name and separated with a colon (:).

For example:

Name shipping(country:postal_code:price)
Possible value US:80302:6.49 USD
Possible value US:30*:12.75 USD

You can also just submit the price.

For example:

Name shipping(price) [shipping(price)]
Possible value 6.49 USD

If you don’t include sub-attributes in the name, still submit values for all four sub-attributes in this order: country [country], region [region], service [service], price [price].

For example:

Name shipping
Possible value US:CA:Express:6.49 USD

If you don't want to provide an optional sub-attribute (like service) for a particular product, then still add a colon ( : ), but leave the text blank.

For example:

Name shipping
Possible value US:::6.49 USD

Name shipping(country:region:price)
Possible value US::6.49 USD

Repeated fields (regional delivery example)

Text

You can submit up to 100 delivery values per item to indicate different costs for individual locations. To submit multiple locations, submit the attribute (with the same name) multiple times. For example:

Product data for an orthopaedic dog bed

Attribute Value
Title [title] XXL orthopaedic dog bed
Shipping [shipping] US:94002-95460:0 USD
Shipping [shipping] US:900*-901*:0 USD
Shipping [shipping] US:902*-930*:15.99 USD

XML

To submit multiple delivery groups for an XML feed, include an additional attribute for each delivery group. You can submit up to 100 shipping [shipping] attributes for each product.

<g:shipping>
<g:country>US</g:country>
<g:region>CA</g:region>
<g:service>Express</g:service>
<g:price>0 USD</g:price>
</g:shipping>
<g:shipping>
<g:country>US</g:country>
<g:region>OR</g:region>
<g:service>Ground</g:service>
<g:price>4.99 USD</g:price>
</g:shipping>
<g:shipping>
<g:country>US</g:country>
<g:region>WA</g:region>
<g:service>Ground</g:service>
<g:price>6.49 USD</g:price>
</g:shipping>

Postcodes

For Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States, you can submit ZIP codes or postcodes through the postcode [postal_code] sub-attribute. There are several different ways in which you can submit these values depending on the region.

Australia and the United States

  • Use a ZIP code or postcode (for example, 94043).
  • Use a range of postcodes (for example, 94002–95460).
  • Use a range of postcodes using a prefix with a wildcard ( * ) (for example, 94*).
  • Use a range of postcodes using two prefixes with wildcards ( * ) (for example, 94*–95*).

Brazil

  • Use codes before the hyphen (for example, if the postcode is 30260-070, use 30260).

Canada

  • Use the postal code forward sortation area (FSA) identifier. Don't include local delivery unit (for example, M5H).
  • Use a range of FSAs using a prefix with a wildcard ( * ) (for example, K*).

The United Kingdom

  • Use the outward code (for example, if the postcode is N1C 4AG, use N1C).
  • Use a range of outward codes (SW1A–SW1Y).
  • Use a range of outward codes using an area code with a wildcard ( * ) (for example, N*). Include the full area without partial district code before *. For example, N* covers Northern London (N1 – N22), but not other area codes starting with N. For the North Western postcode area, you need to provide NW*.
Free delivery, software subscriptions and downloads

Include free delivery by submitting a value of 0 USD in the currency of your target country for the price [price] sub-attribute of the shipping [shipping] attribute. If your product is intangible, such as with a one-off download or a software subscription, you would also set the shipping attribute to 0. For example:

Product data for a one-year subscription for Google Security software priced at 29.90 USD

Attribute Value
Title [title] Google Security Software Basic Edition (1-year subscription)
Price [price] 29.90 USD
Google product category [google_product_category] Software > Computer Software > Antivirus & Security Software
Brand [brand] Google
Shipping [shipping] US:::0 USD
Image link [image_link] http://www.example.com/image1.jpg

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