When submitting your products to Merchant Center, you’ll also provide information about how much you charge for shipping and how long it’ll take for customers to receive their orders. Your shipping settings are used across Google features, including Shopping ads, free product listings, and Buy on Google.
Shipping speed and cost are two of the most common reasons why users abandon their shopping choices, so you’ll want to be sure your shipping settings are accurate and up-to-date.
This article explains how the various shipping settings work and when to use them. Learn more about setting up shipping settings
shipping attribute is not available for the Buy on Google destination. For Buy on Google, the shipping price must be set up at the account level in Merchant Center. Learn more about setting up shipping for Buy on GoogleHow it works
To show your products in a particular country or region, you must offer shipping and correctly set up shipping costs for that area. Because shipping costs vary by a variety of factors, the shipping settings in Merchant Center allow you to set up shipping tables based on factors like weight, price, destination, and more. Choose the shipping options that mirror how you charge for shipping on your site. If you charge your customers exactly what you pay for shipping with common carriers, you can also select carrier rates in some countries and Google will automatically calculate the shipping cost for you.
Shipping settings can also take into account product data that you submit using shipping attributes: shipping_label, shipping_weight, dimensions (shipping_length, shipping_width, shipping_height). To further specify delivery times for certain products, you can use the transit_time_label attribute.
The shipping costs that you submit to Merchant Center must match the costs that you charge on your website.
When to provide shipping settings
You need to provide shipping settings in the following situations:
- If you want to show your products in any of the following countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czechia, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Poland, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, the Netherlands, United Kingdom, United States.
- If you want to show your products in an additional country that is not a product’s primary country of sale. Learn more about submitting feeds to multiple countries
What should be included in shipping
Cost
Shipping rate covers the shipping carrier cost as well as other costs directly related to shipping. Costs related to shipping might include handling, delivery, shipping, logistics, or carrier fees.
- Submit the shipping cost for a user's location, not for a business or separate collection point.
- For Canada only, submit shipping cost exclusive of taxes.
- For Finland, Norway, and Sweden, you may alternatively submit the shipping cost to a collection point for specific carriers based on country.
- For Norway and Sweden: PostNord, DHL, Bring, Schenker
- For Finland: Posti.fi, DHL, Bring, Schenker, Matkahuolto
- For Argentina and Chile, you may alternatively submit the shipping cost to a collection point or a store for pickup.
Shipping can include cross-border charges if the cost is included under a shipping term on your website. Shipping should also include insurance costs related to any of the terms above.
If you provide shipping settings for products you sell in Australia, France, Japan, or the United States.
- Match availability on your landing page with the shipping information you submit to Merchant Center. If you don’t deliver your products across the entire target country, then use “No shipping” to exclude certain areas.
Speed
Shipping speed is an important piece of information for people evaluating a possible purchase. If you want to show this information, you can specify a handling time and transit time for your products in each of your shipping services.
- Handling time is the number of business days needed to process an order before it ships. It normally begins when an order is placed by a customer and ends when a carrier picks up the package for shipment.
- Submit this either in the shipping service or with your product data (use the
max_handling_timeandmin_handling_timeattributes). Learn more about setting up shipping speed
- Submit this either in the shipping service or with your product data (use the
- Transit time is the number of business days it takes for a carrier to deliver a package once it's picked up from your facility.
- You can configure transit time options within each shipping service in your Merchant Center account.
If you ship to US customers: (a) from warehouses based in the US, and use one of our select carriers to deliver your packages or (b) using one of our select partners, you can choose to let Google calculate a unique shipping speed for each customer based on their delivery location. Learn more about letting Google calculate shipping speeds
Ways to set up shipping cost
To get started with shipping, figure out what types of shipping cost models you need to add based on how you charge shipping. Make sure to match or overestimate the shipping costs you submit to Merchant Center in comparison to the costs you charge on your website.
| How you charge | Shipping option | Benefit |
|---|---|---|
| Free shipping for certain ranges | Fixed rate ($0) | Simple to configure and maintain |
| A flat shipping rate for all orders | Fixed rate | Simple to configure and maintain |
| Your shipping is based on rates from supported carriers | Carrier rate along with the shipping_weight and dimension attributes (available for AU, DE, and US) |
Rates are automatically calculated based on common carrier rates for all users, and the rates update if the carrier rates change |
| Based on a percentage of the order cost | Percentage of order total | Simple to configure and maintain and allows for varied shipping rates based on price |
| Based on more than 2 dimensions | Subtable | Add additional dimensions to your shipping service |
| Exclude a group of products from delivery in a shipping service | No shipping | Easily define products that you want to exclude from the shipping service |
| Unique shipping costs for one particular product |
The Not available for Buy on Google |
Allows you to manually override account settings for a product with unique shipping rates |
Shipping-related product data
Shipping cost is often dependent on product details such as price, weight, or size. If you charge shipping based on these attributes or if you want to use carrier rates (which are calculated based on weight and size), you should add the relevant information to your product data.
| Product details | Attribute | What to add |
| Product weight | shipping_weight |
Include a shipping weight for each product so you can vary the shipping cost based on the weight |
| Product dimensions | Include dimensions of a product to use for carrier rates | |
| Different shipping costs for a group of products | shipping_label |
Define groups of products (for example, perishable or oversized) and then apply special shipping rates to those groups |
| Different transit times for a group of products | transit_time_label |
Specify transit times for product groups to provide greater accuracy in estimated delivery dates |
How more advanced shipping settings work
Depending on your shipping model, you might want to learn more about one or more of the more advanced settings described here.
Minimum order value
Carrier rates (AU, DE, UK, and US only)
| Region | Supported shipping carrier |
|---|---|
| Australia | AusPost, TNT, TOLL |
| France | Geodis |
| Germany | DHL, DPD, Hermes, UPS |
| United Kingdom | DHL, DPD, Royal Mail, TNT, UPS, Yodel |
| United States | FedEx, UPS, USPS |
To use carrier rates, you’ll also need to submit shipping-related attributes (see table above):
Learn more about setting up carrier rates
Rate modifications
Carrier rates use the standard commercial rates for each carrier, but you can adjust the rates (up or down) by a percentage or flat amount.
Some carriers have multiple rates for commercial and personal purposes. Google uses commercial rates (e.g., “Standard” for FedEx and “Daily” for UPS). If you use non-commercial shipping rates (often called retail), you’ll likely need to adjust the rates up by 50 – 60%.
If you have a contract with the carrier, then you might need to adjust your rates up or down (using a negative number like -10) by a percentage or flat amount.
Subtables and complex shipping models
Shipping from outside the country of sale
- If you ship across borders, you normally incur additional costs such as customs, duties or import tax. Don't include such costs in the shipping attribute unless the shipping provider is fully responsible for the handling of goods through customs and the cost is included under a shipping term on your website. Learn more about export requirements
No shipping
Delivery zones (AU, FR, and US only)
Transit time labels
transit_time_label attribute to the corresponding products in your feed. Transit time labels help give your customers a more accurate estimated delivery date, which can help influence their purchase decision. For example, you add transit time label heavy to items with higher shipping costs due to their weight. Learn more about transit time labelsOversize and freight shipping (LTL)
- Tag oversized or heavy products with the
shipping_labelattribute. With theshipping_labelattribute, you can give oversized products a label (for example, oversized) and then specify special shipping for those products. For example, you could add a shipping label for common freight classes. - Add rates based on weight and destination using tables and shipping groups. It’s easiest to split up complicated shipping settings, either by using subtables or shipping groups.
- Base rates on shipping labels. Using shipping labels, you can create different rate tables for different product groups by creating shipping groups. For example, you could use the
shipping_labelattribute to indicate a freight class for each product. Then create a group for each label such as one group for Class 70 and one for Class 100. - Base rates on weight and location. If you don’t want to use shipping labels, you can link subtables for different weight classes with different rates for each state or group of postal codes.
- Base rates on shipping labels. Using shipping labels, you can create different rate tables for different product groups by creating shipping groups. For example, you could use the
- Overestimate the cost. If you can’t provide an accurate cost, then overestimate. Your products won’t be disapproved for providing a higher shipping cost than what your website states. If you provide a lower cost than the one listed on your website, your products will be disapproved.
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