The local inventory ads and free local listings add-on allow you to showcase your products and store information to nearby shoppers searching with Google. If your website doesn't contain inventory information for your physical stores, you can show your in-store inventory using a Google-hosted page for your store.
We’re currently working with retailers who have brick-and-mortar stores in Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, the UK, Ukraine, the US, UAE and Vietnam.
On this page
Benefits
- Promote your in-store inventory: Let local shoppers know that your store has the products they’re looking for, at the moment they search on Google.
- Bring your physical store online: Show your in-store product and price availability hosted on Google, or for local inventory ads, show your own website with a product page with in-store availability as a robust, digital in-store experience.
- Measure performance: Monitor the impact your digital ads have on online and in-store performance goals. Note that Store visit measurement is only available in these countries.
Local add-ons
You can choose to use either free local listings or local inventory ads in presenting your products and store information.
Free local listings
With free local listings, the in-store products you sell can appear at no cost on Google Search, Google Maps, YouTube, the Shopping tab, Google Images, and Google Lens.
For Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, the UK, Ukraine, the US, UAE and Vietnam, after clicking on a local listing, users will be redirected to an in-store product and price availability page hosted on Google:
For Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, after clicking on a local listing, we will show a product viewer with product and store information:
Local inventory ads
Local inventory ads can help you boost online and in-store sales by reaching customers from more places across Google. You can leverage pickup later with product data or add in-store inventory automatically from your online store to Merchant Center to provide inventory data faster.
You are also able to highlight your store pickup options directly on your ads:
- Use the pickup today feature to showcase which of your products can be reserved or bought online and picked up in store within the same day or the next day.
- Use the pickup later with in-store inventory data feature to advertise products which are currently not available in your stores but that can be picked up in store within a specific SLA.
- Use pickup later with product data without being required to provide full inventory information. Advertise your products that can be picked up in store within a specific SLA.
Activate the local add-on
Follow these steps to manually activate local inventory ads or free local listings:
In your Merchant Center account, click the Setting & tools icon
.
Select Add-ons.
Select Free local listings or Local inventory ads add-on card under the “Discover” tab.
Click Add.
Select which country you would like to activate the add-on for. You’ll be able to add countries once the add-on has been enabled.
Implementation guide
Step 1 of 10: Load your add-on
Step 2 of 10: Select your country
After the local inventory ads or free local listings add-on has been activated, you’ll be able to select the countries you want to participate in.
Click Continue setup next to the country where you want your add-on to be activated.
Step 3 of 10: Add Stores
Add your stores. If you haven’t added stores to your Merchant Center account, you can either add stores or connect your existing stores’ business profiles to Merchant Center to enable local inventory ads and free local listings.
As an option, you can add your logos and colors. Logos and colors will be used for free local listings. It’ll also be used if you have local inventory ads and your product pages do not show in-store availability.
Step 4 of 10: Your in-store product availability
For your in-store product availability, if you know the inventory information for your physical stores, click let customers know what I have in stock in my individual stores.
You must regularly provide Google your inventory information per store. This can be done using inventory data or by assigning inventory to your stores directly using Merchant Center.
If you don’t know the inventory information for your physical stores but you can ship products to your stores for pickup, click let customers know that I can ship products to stores.
You must provide the pickup turnaround time of your products on your website and in your product data to let customers know when the item will be available in your store for pickup. Learn more about implementing pickup later with product data.
If you select let customers know that I can ship products to stores, skip to step 5.
Step 5 of 10: Your product page experience
This step is required for merchants that know their physical stores’ inventory to indicate the website functionality.
Product pages with in-store availability: Choose this option if your website loads the product pages with an option to browse availability of products in different physical locations. You’ll be asked to provide the link to a product that contains the ability to browse locations for verification. This option is also recommended for single-store merchants that show their in-store availability alongside their online availability.
By choosing this option, the price served will be the one provided in the primary data source. Learn more About product pages with in-store availability.
Store-specific product pages with availability and price: Choose this option if your website is able to load the product price and availability for a specific store based on the Google Business Profile store code that will be embedded in your product page URL. You’ll be asked to provide the link to a store-specific product with a Google Business Profile store code attached to it for verification.
By choosing this option you’ll also have to provide the link template [link_template] attribute in your product data with the {store_code} ValueTrack parameter. Products without link template [link_template] attribute will be disapproved.
Learn more About store-specific product page with in-store availability and price.
Product pages without in-store availability: Choose this option if your website doesn’t display the availability of a product in your physical store. Google will generate an experience where your product will be displayed, along with store information. Learn more about in-store product and price availability hosted on Google.
Step 6 of 10: Your pick-up experience (Optional) or Products on display in store (optional)
If you have product pages with in-store availability, you can enhance your in-store products with a pick up annotation that is compatible with your website:
- Customers can pick them up on the same or next day: If customers are able to buy or reserve an item online and pick it up in store the same or next day, you can select this option to promote your local products as 'pickup today' or ‘pickup tomorrow’. You’ll have to provide the pickup method and turnaround time (pickup SLA) through your inventory data and the turnaround time must also be clearly displayed on your website’s product pages or at checkout. Enter a URL to a product available for pickup today for validation. Learn more about pickup today requirements.
- Customers can pick them up later at a store: If customers are able to buy or reserve an item online and have it shipped to a selected store for pickup, you can select this option to promote your local products with pickup later annotation. You’ll have to provide the pickup method and turnaround time (pickup SLA) through your product or inventory data and the turnaround time must also be clearly displayed on your website’s product pages or at check out. Enter a URL to a product available for pickup later for validation. Learn more About pickup later requirements.
Step 7 of 10: Add inventory
Google regularly checks your online store, and if we find in-store availability for your products, we’ll add this in-store inventory automatically to your Merchant Center account. Learn more about in-store availability automatically added from your online store.
You can complement the automatically added inventory by providing another data source for your local inventory data. Learn how to how to upload your local inventory data to Merchant Center.
Step 8 of 10: (Only for DE, AT and CH) - Add Impressum
Step 9 of 10: Verify your inventory
This step is for merchants whose product pages don’t show what’s in stock at their stores. You’ll need to submit an inventory verification contact who will coordinate the verification process with Google. This person can be different from the main admin contact in your Merchant Center account settings.
To start the process, follow these steps:
Select Verify inventory.
Provide contact information of your inventory verification contact.
Verify the inventory verification contact through email.
Click Request inventory verification.
Step 10 of 10: (Only required for local inventory ads) - Link Google ads
Policies
Google’s policies provide important guidance for retailers participating in local inventory ads and free local listings. To make sure you understand the expectations, review the Local inventory ads and free local listings policies. Google disapproves products and accounts that don't comply with these policies.