The merchant-hosted local shop front (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 shop front, you can manage and track your customers' entire experience.
To get started with your merchant-hosted local shop front:
- Click the tools and settings icon
, then select Local inventory ads setup under 'Tools'.
- Select the country that you'd like to set up.
- Click Merchant-hosted local shop front (full).
On this page
How it works
The merchant-hosted local shop front 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 shop code where the item is available to the retailer.
- The retailer generates the landing page for the clicked product, customised to their shop.
You can self-detect customers' locations, but you must direct customers to the shop 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 shop-specific landing page.
You can also add the optional mobile link for the merchant-hosted local shop front [mobile_link_template] attribute to deliver a merchant-hosted local shop front that is optimised for mobile devices and to track mobile clicks.
[ads_redirect] attribute in your local products feed, you must include the shop code {store_code} ValueTrack parameter for both the ads redirect [ads_redirect] attribute and the link for merchant-hosted local shop front [link_template] attribute.Verify and claim your website URL, and make sure that the website URL registered in Merchant Center matches the domain in the link for merchant-hosted local shop front [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 shop front [link_template] should provide a link to a product's shop-specific landing page.
URL structures vary across websites. Shop codes can be URL parameters or part of the URL path. Check the examples below:
Example: {store_code} as URL parameter
| itemid | title | price | ads_redirect | link_template |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 123 | 2-Person Camping Tent – Adventure Series | 249.99 GBP | 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 torch and carrying case | 19.99 GBP | http://acmestores.com/456/ store/{store_code}?trackingParameter=value |
http://acmestores.com/456/ store/{store_code} |
For full details, see the local products feed specification and merchant-hosted required attributes.
Website requirements
Landing page requirements
The landing page for your merchant-hosted local shop front must represent only a single merchant's shop and meet the following requirements on both desktop and mobile devices, including tablets. Your landing page is required to:
- Display 'shop name', 'shop location', 'local product price' and 'availability' information on the landing page.
- Make sure that the local information (such as shop name, shop location, local product price and availability) is clearly visible when the page opens, without customer interaction. This information should be visible when the page is loaded, without requiring the page visitor to scroll.
- When you first open the page, the shop name and city can represent the shop location if the full shop address isn't present. In this case, the full shop address should be displayed when the customer clicks to view shop location details or change to other shop locations.
- Display your shop's local availability as prominently as the option to 'Buy online'.
- Display your shop'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 shop.
- Be able to display a local shop front based on the codes from your Business Profiles in order to populate shop-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 shop.
- Allow customers to change the landing page to your other shop locations that sell the product.
- Be crawlable by the Google storebot user agent. This allows Google to ensure that 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 collect in-store)
- Show shop details like phone number, directions and hours
- Offer the ability to browse similar or related products in your local or online shops
- Provide information about your sales, coupons and promotions
(Optional) Structured data requirements
Google can crawl your shop-specific landing pages to ensure that the information that 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 that 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 shop front pages.