Set up Shipping (for Shopify users)

If you’re looking for information about setting up your shipping settings (for Shopify users) in Merchant Center Next, click here.

Shipping information is required in order for your products to appear on Google and provide valuable details for your customers. Depending on the country where you ship your products, you may be required to set up your shipping rates to meet Google Merchant Center requirements.

This article provides instructions for how to set up shipping. To learn more about optimizing your shipping process, see the Shipping best practices article.

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On this page

• Benefits
• Instructions
• (Recommended) Method 1: Set up shipping in Shopify
• Method 2: Set up shipping in Merchant Center

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Benefits

• Reduced cart abandonment: Shipping speed and cost are the most common reasons why customers abandon their shopping choices. By maintaining accurate and up-to-date shipping information, you can reduce the likelihood of abandoned orders and improve your conversion rates.
• Increased click-through rates: Shoppers consistently rate shipping as one of their top considerations when buying online. By keeping your shipping information current, you can attract more clicks and engagement from potential customers, boosting your online visibility.
• Increase customer confidence with a “Top Quality Store” badge: Shipping cost is one of the important criteria to build customer trust and obtain a “Top Quality Store” badge.
• Attract more Customers and build trust: Providing a seamless and reliable shipping experience builds trust among customers, encouraging them to return for repeat purchases.

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Instructions

When you use the Google & YouTube app on Shopify, you can follow one of the below 2 methods for setting up and syncing your shipping information. The first method of setting up shipping in your Shopify account is recommended for most Shopify users, especially those with simple shipping settings.

Method 1: Set up shipping in Shopify

You can set up your shipping strategy including your shipping method, local delivery, and local pickup method. For businesses with multiple locations, you can set shipping rates per location within each shipping profile for greater control over your shipping costs. If you want to offer local methods for customers to receive their products, then you can set up pickup and local delivery.

Learn how to set up and manage your shipping and delivery in Shopify.

Always review your shipping setup in Shopify to ensure it’s accurate. Then, confirm that all of your shipping settings are synced with the Merchant Center.

Note: Only shipping rates in your General shipping profile can sync to Google Merchant Center. If you use custom shipping profiles, then rates will sync incorrectly with Google Merchant Center and cause errors. To learn more about shipping profiles, refer to Setting up shipping rates.

If you have a shipping zone set up for the country where you ship products, then you can automatically import shipping settings from your store.

Steps to sync your shipping settings with Merchant center

1. In your Google & YouTube app, click Settings.
2. In “Your product feed settings” section, click Manage beside Shipping settings.
3. In the “Manage shipping settings” page, select Automatically import shipping information.
   • If you are using a third party shipping plug in, confirm that all of your shipping settings and services are synced with Merchant Center. If they’re not, then you need to manually set up your shipping rates in Google Merchant Center.

Any time your store's shipping settings are updated, the changes are automatically re-imported to Google Merchant Center.

Learn how to set up free and fast shipping in Shopify in the Shipping best practices article.

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Method 2: Set up shipping in Merchant Center

This option is suitable for Shopify users with advanced or customized shipping settings.

Use “shipping settings” in Merchant Center to manually configure account-level shipping services. If you prefer to set your shipping cost and time for each product, use the shipping [shipping] attribute instead. To set up account-level shipping settings, you’ll need to configure a shipping service in Merchant Center or via the Shipping Settings API. For each shipping service, you can configure a number of settings, such as shipping cost, delivery time, and holiday shipping cutoffs.

In Merchant Center, you have advanced settings including minimum order values, shipping rate tables, subtables for complex shipping scenarios, carrier calculated rates, and option to connect your shipping data from 3P partners.

Learn more about shipping settings.

Tip: The costs you submit to Merchant Center must match the costs you charge on your Shopify store. If you can’t match the cost exactly, overestimate the figures you submit to Merchant Center. Keep in mind that customers will consider these costs and delivery speed when deciding whether to click on your product or not.

Learn how to set up free and fast shipping in Merchant Center in the Shipping best practices article.