Availability date [availability_date]

Use the availability date [availability_date] attribute to tell customers when a preordered or backordered product will be shipped.

In this article

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

When to use

• Optional for each product
• Required if you set the availability [availability] attribute to preorder or backorder. (You can then provide the date (up to 1 year in the future) when your product will be available and get shipped using the availability date [availability_date] attribute).

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.

Type	Date, time, and timezone, ISO 8601 compliant (YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm[±hhmm], or YYYY-MM-DDThh:mmZ)
Limits	1–25 characters
Repeated field	No
Schema.org property (What's this?)	Offer.availabilityStarts, Type: DateTime

File format	Example value
Text (TSV)	2016-12-25T13:00-0800
XML (Feeds)	<g:availability_date>2016-11-25T13:00-0800</g:availability_date>

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

Note: To ensure that this product data attribute gets recognized by our system correctly, remember to submit your data source file in a format that we support.

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 your Merchant Center account.

• There are no minimum requirements for this attribute. Keep in mind that you still need to follow the formatting guidelines or the information you submit can't be used.

Note: The availability date should also be added to the product’s landing page and be clear to your customers (for example, “May 6, 2023”). If an exact date can’t be provided, you can use an estimated date (for example, “May 2023”).

Best practices

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

• Submit the availability date attribute for products with the availability [availability] attribute value set to preorder or backorder.
• Specify a time and timezone in addition to the date. If you don't, the default time is 12 AM, midnight, in the UTC timezone.

• Don’t include date ranges. Since the attribute is required for products with the availability [availability] attribute value set to preorder or backorder, Google recommends adding an estimated date (up to 1 year in the future) and updating the value as soon as the expected date the product can be shipped to the consumer is confirmed.

Examples

Product is available for preorders

Product data for an android squishable
Attribute	Value
Availability [availability]	preorder
Availability date [availability_date]	2016-12-25T13:00-0800

Product is available for backorder

Product data for an android squishable
Attribute	Value
Availability [availability]	backorder
Availability date [availability_date]	2016-12-25T13:00-0800

Get ready for the release date

Product data for an android squishable
Release status	Not released
Attribute	Value
Availability [availability]	preorder
Availability date [availability_date]	2016-12-25T13:00-0800