The Google & YouTube app on Shopify syncs products that are available to your online shop with Merchant Center. For eligible shops, products synced to Merchant Center using the Google & YouTube app on Shopify can appear in relevant Google Shopping tab search listings free of charge. While most users opt for automatic sync, you now have the option to choose manual sync. Learn about automatic sync and manual sync.
To view the status of your products or change your account settings, go to the Google & YouTube app on Shopify.
On this page
- How it works
- How to add product data using the Google & YouTube app on Shopify
- Product requirements
- How to optimise product titles and descriptions for Google Shopping
- How to sync discounts or promotions
- Product status
- How to choose between automatic sync (recommended) or manual sync
- Frequently asked questions
How it works
- Select the country or countries that you wish to sync your products to on Google platforms:
- Navigate to Settings in the Google & YouTube app and select 'Additional settings to sync with Google Merchant Center' under 'Product sync'. Go to 'Countries and languages', toggle the ON tab, then select from the country list and then select Save.
- Ensure that your Shopify markets are enabled and have general delivery rates configured for these locations to properly sync your country information to Google. Note that if you have configured a single country to be part of multiple Shopify markets, the app will now treat it as a 'standalone country' to prevent data conflicts. These overlapping countries will be placed in their own dedicated data source and the Google data source label will use the two-letter country code (for example, 'US') instead of the market name. Turning on additional countries may also affect applicable Google Ads campaigns; review your campaign location settings when adjusting target countries.
- If you want us to sync any additional future countries that you may add to your Delivery and Markets in Shopify automatically, select 'Automatically sync future countries'. This is recommended to ensure that you can sell your products on Google as soon as you expand into a new market. If you'd rather select new countries yourself, select 'Manually select countries'.
List of supported countries and languages
| Supported countries | Country code | Supported languages |
|---|---|---|
| Algeria | DZ | ar, en, fr |
| Angola | AO | en, pt |
| Argentina | AR | en, es |
| Australia | AU | en, zh |
| Austria | AT | de, en |
| Bahrain | BH | ar, en |
| Bangladesh | BD | en |
| Belarus | BY | en, ru |
| Belgium | BE | en, fr, nl |
| Brazil | BR | en, pt |
| Bulgaria | BG | en, bg |
| Cambodia | KH | en |
| Cameroon | CM | en, fr |
| Canada | CA | en, fr, zh |
| Chile | CL | en, es |
| China | CN | en, zh |
| Colombia | CO | en, es |
| Costa Rica | CR | en, es |
| Côte d'Ivoire | CI | en, fr |
| Croatia | HR | en, hr |
| Cyprus | CY | el, en, tr |
| Czechia | CZ | cs, en |
| Denmark | DK | da, en |
| Dominican Republic | DO | en, es |
| Ecuador | EC | en, es |
| Egypt | EG | ar, en |
| El Salvador | SV | en, es |
| Estonia | EE | en, et |
| Ethiopia | ET | en |
| Finland | FI | en, fi |
| France | FR | en, fr |
| Georgia | GE | en, ru |
| Germany | DE | de, en |
| Ghana | GH | en |
| Greece | GR | el, en |
| Guatemala | GT | en, es |
| Hong Kong | HK | en, zh |
| Hungary | HU | en, hu |
| India | IN | en, hi |
| Indonesia | ID | en, id |
| Ireland | IE | en |
| Israel | IL | en, iw |
| Italy | IT | en, it |
| Japan | JP | en, ja |
| Jordan | JO | ar, en |
| Kazakhstan | KZ | en, ru |
| Kenya | KE | en |
| Kuwait | KW | ar, en |
| Latvia | LV | en, lv |
| Lebanon | LB | ar, en |
| Lithuania | LT | en, lt |
| Luxembourg | LU | de, en, fr |
| Madagascar | MG | en, fr |
| Malaysia | MY | en, zh |
| Malta | MT | en, mt |
| Mauritius | MU | en |
| Mexico | MX | en, es |
| Morocco | MA | ar, en, fr |
| Mozambique | MZ | en, pt |
| Myanmar | MM | en |
| Nepal | NP | en |
| Netherlands | NL | en, nl |
| New Zealand | NZ | en |
| Nicaragua | NI | en, es |
| Nigeria | NG | en |
| Norway | NO | en, no |
| Oman | OM | ar, en |
| Pakistan | PK | en |
| Panama | PA | en, es |
| Paraguay | PY | en, es |
| Peru | PE | en, es |
| Philippines | PH | en |
| Poland | PL | en, pl |
| Portugal | PT | en, pt |
| Puerto Rico | PR | en, es |
| Republic of Korea | KR | en, ko |
| Romania | RO | en, ro |
| Russia | RU | en, ru |
| Saudi Arabia | SA | ar, en |
| Senegal | SN | en, fr |
| Serbia | RS | en, sr |
| Singapore | SG | en, zh |
| Slovakia | SK | en, sk |
| Slovenia | SI | en, sl |
| South Africa | ZA | en |
| Spain | ES | en, es |
| Sri Lanka | LK | en |
| Sweden | SE | en, sv |
| Switzerland | CH | de, en, fr, it |
| Taiwan | TW | en, zh |
| Tanzania | TZ | en |
| Thailand | TH | en, th |
| Tunisia | TN | ar, en |
| Türkiye | TR | en, tr |
| UAE | AE | ar, en |
| Uganda | UG | en |
| UK | GB | en |
| Ukraine | UA | en, uk, ru |
| Uruguay | UY | en, es |
| USA | US | en, es, zh |
| Uzbekistan | UZ | en, ru |
| Venezuela | VE | en, es |
| Vietnam | VN | en, vi |
| Zambia | ZM | en |
| Zimbabwe | ZW | en |
- Make products available to the Google & YouTube app on Shopify: When you set up the Google & YouTube app on Shopify for the first time, all of the products that are available on your Shopify shop are automatically synced with Merchant Center. If you prefer to choose which products to sync, then you can change the publishing of a single product manually or perform a bulk action to change the publishing for several products.
- Add required product data: Google uses product data to help categorise your synced products on Google. However, in certain instances, you may need to add additional information before products can be successfully synced to your Merchant Center account.
A product sync will be initiated after a merchant has successfully connected their Merchant Center account and updated required product information. Products will continue to sync automatically when any information changes. If your shop uses multi-market configurations, be aware that splitting products into new standalone country data sources increases your total offer count, which may require you to request a quota increase if you hit your limits. Additionally, any existing attribute rules will not be automatically transferred to these new data sources and must be copied manually.
How to add product data using the Google & YouTube app on Shopify
- On your Shopify admin page, navigate to Sales channels and select Google & YouTube.
- Select Products and then select All products.
- Tick all the products that you want to add product data to and select 'Edit in bulk editor'.
- Update desired fields and select Save.
- Optional: If your product doesn't have a GTIN or MPN because it's a custom product, then tick This is a custom product.
- Optional: In the Product categorisation section, add a Google product category.
- Optional: Add custom labels for Age, Gender or Condition.
- Select Save.
Product requirements
Google requires specific information about your products before you can publish them on Google. The Google & YouTube app on Shopify imports your existing product data from Shopify, but you might need to add some additional information before you can sync products with Merchant Center.
Most products only need the following information added:
- Unique product identifiers: Google requires you to have a unique product identifier for each of your products. These identifiers let Google match your product with similar products on Google Shopping. If these identifiers aren't correct, then Google doesn't publish your products and your account could be suspended.
- If a product has a GTIN (Global Trade Item Number), then you need to add it before you can publish the product. You can add a GTIN in the details of a product variant.
- For products without a GTIN, you need to add an MPN (Manufacturer Part Number) and brand to the product data in the Google & YouTube app on Shopify.
Learn more about unique product identifiers.
Google also has specific requirements for the following product categories:
| Category | Requirements |
|---|---|
| Clothing and accessories |
Products in the Clothing and accessories category might require specific product data before they will be published. To show Clothing and accessories products in free listings, you need to include the following attributes: To show Clothing and accessories products in Shopping ads targeting these countries:
You need to include the following attributes: |
| Media | Products in the Music, Movies or Video games categories are required to have a UPC, EAN or JAN as the unique product identifier. |
| Books | Products in the Books category are required to have an ISBN as the unique product identifier. Product options, including variants, need to be in English to sync with Google. |
How to optimise product titles and descriptions for Google Shopping
The keywords that you use in your product titles and descriptions can help us show your products to the right customers on Google Shopping.
When you're syncing products to Google Shopping, you can either sync your product titles and descriptions, or use the title tag and meta description from the search engine listing. You might want to use the search engine listing title tag and meta description so that you can include more keywords for search engine optimisation on Google Shopping without changing the product information in your online shop.
Learn more about optimising product title [title] and description [description].
To use title tags and meta descriptions for your products on Google Shopping, first you need to select the preference from the Google & YouTube app on Shopify.
- Go to the Google & YouTube app on Shopify and select Settings.
- Navigate to the 'Product feed' section and select Additional settings to sync with Google Merchant Center under 'Product sync'.
- Go to the 'Product titles and descriptions' section.
- Select Product titles to use the search-engine-optimised product tag for your products on Google Shopping.
- Select Search engine product titles and then select Save.
- Select Product descriptions to use the search-engine-optimised meta description for your products on Google.
- Select Search engine product descriptions and then select Save.
- Select Product titles to use the search-engine-optimised product tag for your products on Google Shopping.
How to sync discounts or promotions
Discounts are known as promotions in Google Merchant Center. Some promotions (percentage, fixed amount, automatic discount) created in your Shopify admin automatically sync to Google Ads and show organically across Google.
You can manage which discounts are available to the Google & YouTube app on Shopify by following the steps below:
- Go to your Shopify admin page and then select Discounts in the left navigation menu.
- Select the name of the discount that you want to edit.
- Under the 'Sales channel access' section, select and deselect the sales channels that you want your discount to be available on, then select Done.
You can also manage your promotions in Merchant Center. Learn more on How to sync sale price and promotions from Shopify to Google and Edit a promotion or change promotion status. Get general information about Promotions.
Product status
The Google & YouTube app on Shopify displays the status of your products in the 'Products' tab under the Google & YouTube section. There are four possible product statuses:
- Not approved: Products with the 'Not approved' status are not synced with the Google Merchant Center because of one or more errors, or missing product data.
- Limited: Products with the 'Limited' status mean that only some of the products are synced with the Google Merchant Center because of one or more errors, or missing product data.
- Under review: Products with the 'Under review' status have changes in Shopify that haven't been synced to the Google Merchant Center yet.
- Approved: Products with the 'Approved' status are successfully synced to Merchant Center.
To solve product errors, select the product name and make changes in the product detail page to suit Merchant Center product requirements. When you make a change to a product here, it's automatically synced with Merchant Center.
When you change product information on the Product page of your Shopify admin, the changes are synced to Google. Since Google errors and warnings are different from Shopify's, check the Google & YouTube app on Shopify periodically to ensure that changes that you made in your Shopify admin didn't cause a disapproval on Google.
How to choose between automatic sync (recommended) or manual sync
You have the option to choose how you want your information to be synced with Google Merchant Center. We recommend that you automatically sync your products, however, choose the option that is best for you.
Automatic sync: When you choose to automatically sync your products using the Google & YouTube app, your Shopify products will appear on Google and you'll be able to view your product status on Shopify.
If you would like to opt for automatic sync on your Shopify page, check the steps below:
- Under 'Sales channels', go to the Google & YouTube app and select Settings.
- Navigate to the 'Product feed' section and toggle the 'Automatically syncs products that are available in your online shop with Google Merchant Center' option under 'Product sync'.
- Select the Automatically sync your products using the Google & YouTube app option and then select Save.
Manual sync: When you manually sync your products, you will need to send your product data to Merchant Center yourself in order for them to be shown on Google. We won’t automatically sync your Shopify products to Merchant Center. To select this option, you will need to have products in Merchant Center already. Learn more about adding products from a file to Merchant Center and adding products automatically from your online shop.