As a point of sale (POS)/inventory data provider, you serve as the key contact between retailers and Google when it comes to local inventory ad (LIA) setup and the data collection process.
How to onboard a retailer
To onboard a retailer, follow these steps:
- Identify a retailer and pitch local inventory ads.
- The retailer creates the accounts.
- The retailer identifies you as their data provider.
Identify a retailer and pitch local inventory ads
- Ensure that the retailer has at least one physical permanent retail location and carries at least 50 GTIN-identifiable products.
- (Optional) Add sample inventory data to a test Merchant Center account to estimate how many GTIN-identifiable products a retailer sells before pitching local inventory ads.
- Pitch local inventory ads to the retailer.
Business Profile and Merchant Center setup
The retailer creates Merchant Center and Business Profiles
- The retailer or (POS) provider on the retailer's behalf creates and sets up a Merchant Center account.
- The retailer adds or claims a Business Profile on Google.
- The retailer or POS provider on the retailer's behalf creates a Google Ads account (optional).
- The retailer or (POS) provider on the retailer's behalf links these accounts and profiles to each other.
The retailer identifies you as their POS/inventory data provider
- The retailer selects you as their POS/inventory data provider in Merchant Center.
- This step sends an email to you with the retailer name, Merchant Center ID and POS data provider account ID.
- If you don't send data to Google within 14 days from this email's send date, we'll mark the request as rejected.
How to incorporate retailer data
After you've onboarded a retailer, you need to incorporate their data in your feeds.
Augment your existing inventory, sales and shop feeds with data for the new retailer (referenced using the Merchant Center ID from the email), following the specifications in the feed specification.