Availability date [availability_date]

Use the availability date [availability_date] attribute to tell customers when a pre-ordered or backordered product will be dispatched.

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 one year in the future – when your product will be available and be delivered using the availability date [availability_date] attribute).

Format

Follow these formatting guidelines to make sure that Google understands the data that you're submitting. Learn when and how to submit your product data in English.

Type	Date, time and time zone, 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 is recognised by our system correctly, remember to submit your data feed file in a format that we support.

Minimum requirements

These are the requirements that 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. Bear in mind that you still need to follow the formatting guidelines or the information that 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 (e.g. '6 May 2023'). If an exact date can't be provided, you can use an estimated date (e.g. 'May 2023').

Best practices

These best practices can help you to go beyond the basic requirements to optimise 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 time zone in addition to the date. If you don't, the default time is 12 a.m. (midnight) in the UTC time zone.

• 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 one year in the future) and updating the value as soon as the expected date that the product can be dispatched to the consumer is confirmed.

Examples

Product is available for pre-order

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