The merchant hosted local storefront (full) lets you direct customers to your website when they click on your local inventory ads and free listings. By directing customers to your website instead of your Google-hosted local storefront, you can manage and track your customers' entire experience.
To get started with your merchant hosted local storefront:
- Click the tools and settings icon
, then select Local inventory ads setup under "Tools".
- Select the country you'd like to set up.
- Click Merchant hosted local storefront (full).
On this page
How it works
The merchant hosted local storefront surfaces all your purchase options and includes local product information in your existing website.
Here’s how the process works behind the scenes:
- A customer clicks a local inventory ad or free listing.
- Google passes a Business Profile store code where the item is available to the retailer.
- The retailer generates the landing page for the clicked product, customized to their store.
You can self-detect customers’ locations, but you must direct customers to the store that Google passes in the URL generated by the customer's click.
Primary feed requirements
Add the link for merchant-hosted local shop front [link_template] attribute to your local products feed. You must include the {store_code} Valuetrack parameter to the [link_template], so that your website loads the store-specific landing page.
You can also add the optional mobile link for merchant-hosted local shop front [mobile_link_template] attribute to deliver a merchant-hosted local shop front that is optimized for mobile devices and to track mobile clicks.
[ads_redirect] attribute in your local products feed, you must include the store code {store_code} ValueTrack parameter for both the ads redirect [ads_redirect] attribute and the link for merchant hosted local storefront [link_template] attribute.Verify and claim your website URL, and make sure the website URL registered in Merchant Center matches the domain in the link for merchant hosted local storefront [link_template]. If the website URL doesn’t match the registered domain, learn how to resolve this issue.
Include URL tracking parameters in the ads redirect [ads_redirect] attribute only. The link for merchant hosted local storefront [link_template] should provide a link to a product’s store-specific landing page.
URL structures vary across websites. Store codes can be URL parameters, or part of the URL path. Check examples below:
Example: {store_code} as URL parameter
| itemid | title | price | ads_redirect | link_template |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 123 | 2-Person Camping Tent - Adventure Series | 249.99 USD | http://mikemart.com/123?store= {store_code}&trackingParameter=value |
http://mikemart.com/123?store={store_code} |
Example: {store_code} as part of URL path
| itemid | title | price | ads_redirect | link_template |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| abc | LED flashlight and carrying case | 19.99 USD | http://acmestores.com/456/ store/{store_code}?trackingParameter=value |
http://acmestores.com/456/ store/{store_code} |
For full details, check the local products feed specification and merchant hosted required attributes.
Website requirements
Landing page requirements
The landing page for your merchant hosted local storefront must represent only a single merchant’s store and meet the following requirements on both desktop and mobile devices, including tablets. Your landing page is required to:
- Display "store name", "store location", "local product price", and "availability" information on the landing page.
- Make sure the local information (such as store name, store location, local product price, and availability) is clearly visible when the page opens, without customer interaction. This information should be visible upon loading of the page, without requiring the page visitor to scroll.
- When you first open the page, the store name and city can represent the store location if the full store address isn't present. In this case, the full store address should be displayed when the customer clicks to view store location details or change to other store locations.
- Display your store’s local availability as prominently as the option to "Buy online".
- For a product to be considered in-store, a customer must be able to collect the item either today or tomorrow at the storefront.
- Display your store’s local price or ensure that local prices match online prices, if only online prices are displayed. The price displayed on your landing page must match the price submitted in your local inventory feed for the selected store.
- Be able to display a local storefront based on the codes from your Business Profiles in order to populate store-specific pricing and availability. The availability displayed on your landing page must match the availability submitted in your local products inventory feed for the selected store.
- Allow customers to change the landing page to your other store locations that sell the product.
- Be crawlable by the Google Storebot user-agent. This allows Google to ensure your product landing page is meeting the requirements.
Landing page recommendations
In addition to the landing page requirements above, we recommend the following:
- Link to additional purchase options (e.g. Buy online and pickup in-store)
- Show store details like phone number, directions, and hours
- Offer the ability to browse similar or related products in your local or online stores
- Provide information about your sales, coupons, and promotions
(Optional) structured data requirements
Google can crawl your store-specific landing pages to ensure that the information you submit in your feeds matches the information that is displayed to customers. If you decide to implement this feature for your merchant hosted pages, Google can programmatically disapprove items which are out of stock or have incorrect pricing.
This is used to help Google retrieve up-to-date information about your products and offers directly from your website.
Learn about the optional structured data markup requirements for your merchant hosted local storefront pages.