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In this Help Centre, you can find content for both Merchant Center Next and the classic Merchant Center experience. Look for the logo at the top of each article to make sure that you're using the article for the Merchant Center version that applies to you. 

How to fix: Inaccurate availability (due to inconsistent availability between the landing page and checkout pages on your website)

Your account has either been given a warning or suspended due to this error

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One or more of your products show as unavailable for purchase at checkout even though they're displayed as being in stock on your landing pages.

It's a bad customer experience if product availability changes from 'in stock' on the landing page to 'out of stock' or 'unavailable' after the product has been added to a basket. Customers will be less likely to try and purchase from your shop in the future.

By submitting consistent availability information on your landing pages and throughout the entire checkout process, you ensure that online customers have a great experience on your website.

You should've received an email asking you to update your availability status by a certain date so that the values are consistent throughout your website (on the landing pages and during the checkout process).

Here are some common reasons for this violation:

  • Use of IP detection/geolocation. Don't change the availability of your product based on a user's location. If you only target certain locations within a country, use regional pricing and availability.
  • Non-functional buy button. The product appears to be available on the landing page but after pressing the buy button, it shows as out of stock or unavailable.
  • Product cannot be delivered to a home address. During checkout, after providing the delivery address, the product is no longer available and cannot be directly delivered to a user's doorstep, excluding PO boxes. If you have a product that's only available for click & collect or that is delivered to a collection point, check the delivery cost guidelines to see whether these options are allowed in your target country. Otherwise, ensure that your product is excluded from online offers by using the excluded destination [excluded_destination] attribute. Alternatively, you may consider trying local inventory ads.
  • Products are not available to check out within the entire target country. If you sell products that are only available in some of the regions of the target country, check to see whether regional availability and pricing is available in your target country.

Instructions

Step 1: Ensure that the products available on your landing pages can be checked out and delivered to home addresses

Investigate your website's checkout process to identify any reasons why a product would become unavailable past the landing page.

  • Check the warning email for examples of products that are affected. Look for a common problem on your website that could cause these availability mismatches.
  • Review the availability status that you display on the product landing pages with the one that you display at checkout.

Step 2: Resubmit your product data

After you've fixed the issue and updated your product data, resubmit it using one of these methods:

If your Merchant Center product data is accurate, you don't need to resubmit it before requesting a review.

Step 3: Request a review

In some instances, if your account or one of your product offers is disapproved and you've either fixed the issue or you disagree with the issue, you can request a review. If the review is successful, your issue will disappear. If the disapproval remains and you're uncertain about how to proceed, contact us for support.

Note: If you use a third-party platform to list your products, go to your third-party application to request a review.
If you're working with a third-party platform, some of these instructions may not apply to you. Refer to your third-party platform for instructions on how to resolve the issue or complete the task. Learn how to find support if you use a non-Google platform.

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