Item group ID [item_group_id]

Use the item group ID [item_group_id] attribute to group product variants in your product data. Variants are a group of similar products that only differ from one another by product details like size [size], color [color], material [material], pattern [pattern], age group [age_group], and gender [gender].

When you use an item group ID [item_group_id] to group your products, you can ensure that your product and its variants are shown to customers as a group, instead of separately.

In this article

• When to use
• Format
• Minimum requirements
• Best practices
• Examples

When to use

Required for free listings for product variants

Required for Shopping ads for product variants targeting the following countries:

• Brazil
• France
• Germany
• Japan
• United Kingdom
• United States

Format

Follow these formatting guidelines to make sure Google understands the data you're submitting.

Learn when and how to submit your product data in English

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

Minimum requirements

These are the requirements 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 the Diagnostics page in your Merchant Center account.

• Submit a unique ID for each different product. Use the same value for the item group ID [item_group_id] attribute for all variants of the same product. For example, a T-shirt comes in 9 variants: 3 sizes (small, medium, large) and 3 colors (red, blue, green). Submit each variant as a separate product (for a total of 9 separate products), and submit the same value for the item group ID attribute for each to indicate that these are variants of the same product.
• Each distinct item group must have a unique value for the item group ID [item_group_id]attribute.
  • Don’t rely on casing to make the item group ID unique. The values "abc123" and "ABC123" are interpreted as the same product.
  • Don’t reuse or recycle the same item group ID attribute for different products.

• Submit a variant attribute along with the item group ID attribute. When you submit an item group ID, make sure that your variants use at least one variant attribute like: color [color], pattern [pattern], material [material], age group [age_group], gender [gender], size[size].

• Use the same variant attributes for all products with the same item group ID. For example, if you submit a dress in 2 colors and 2 sizes, each product you submit must provide a value for the color [color] attribute and the size [size] attribute. Don't just provide the color or size for one dress, but not the others.

• Make sure that the product details displayed on your landing page match the values you provide for each attribute like title [title], color [color], pattern [pattern], material [material], price [price], availability [availability], and image link [image_link]. Learn more about requirements for landing pages

Best practices

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

• Use the parent SKU as the item group ID value for all variants of the same product. Don't submit a parent SKU as a separate product. If you'd like to group variants using a parent SKU, use the parent SKU as the value for the item group ID [item_group_id] attribute for all products in the variant group.

• Don’t mix up item group ID and ID attributes. Use the ID attribute to uniquely identify a single product, and use item group ID [item_group_id] to group together several products as variants.

• Don’t submit a value for the item group ID attribute if your product is not a variant. If your product is similar to other products, but not specifically a variant, don’t t submit the item group ID attribute. Some examples of products that are not variants include a suit consisting of a jacket and pants or a set of bath accessories.

• Use a stable item group ID value for each group of product variants. Once you've assigned an item group ID to a product, don't change it. If the item group ID changes often, it could cause inconsistency in the way variants are grouped and shown to customers.
• Don’t use the item group ID attribute for unsupported variants. If your product varies by an unsupported attribute (such as car make and model), or if your product is a build-to-order custom good with a large number of variants (more than 30), then don't use the item group ID attribute to indicate your variants. Review best practices for submitting unsupported variants
• Make sure to have different landing page URL attributes (For example, link [link], mobile link [mobile_link])for each variant, with each URL using a different path segment and/or query parameters, for example "/t-shirt/green" or "/t-shirt?color=green&size=small"
• For instructions on how to best structure your website and URLs for variants, refer to the URL structure article on Search Central.
• For details on how to add Schema.org structured data for variants, refer to the Product variant article on Search Central.

Examples

Submit variant details through the variant attributes. For example:

Product data for red Google logo T-shirt, size small Attribute Value Title [title] Google Logo T-shirt - Small - Red ID [id] 12345-S-R Color [color] Red Size [size] Small Link [link] https://example.com/shirt?color=red&size=small Item group ID [item_group_id] 12345

Product data for blue Google logo T-shirt, size medium
Attribute	Value
Title [title]	Google Logo T-shirt - Medium - Blue
ID [id]	12345-M-B
Color [color]	Blue
Size [size]	Medium
Link [link]	https://example.com/shirt?color=blue&size=medium
Item group ID [item_group_id]	12345

Don’t submit variants without variant attributes.