The pick up today feature lets you direct customers to your website when they click on your local inventory ads. By directing customers to your website instead of your Google-hosted local shop front, you can manage and track your customers' entire experience.
This article helps you understand how pick up today with merchant-hosted local shop front (basic) works and what's required for your primary feed, local product inventory feed and website.
How it works
- A customer clicks a local inventory ad with pick-up availability text.
- The customer is directed to the retailer's omnichannel product detail page.
- On the retailer's website, customers can select a shop to view the clicked item's price and availability, buy it online and collect it at a shop nearby.
Step 1: Review website requirements
To be eligible for pick up today with a merchant hosted local shop front (basic), your website must meet these requirements:
- Fulfil the merchant-hosted local shop front (basic) landing page and feed requirements.
- Display the option to collect a product on your landing page or in your checkout flow. Note that the product's local shop availability must be clearly visible on only your product landing page.
- Display a shop selector with the possibility to show an item's click and collect availability. Note that the item's local shop availability must be clearly visible on only your product landing page.
- Alternatively, shop selection for click and collect can occur in your checkout flow after a customer has added an item to their basket.
- The item's pick-up availability can be displayed after clicking on a link (for example, 'check local availability') or after submitting a postcode or address.
- After a customer clicks or inputs the required information, your site must display an item's click and collect availability and the location of the local shop.
- An item's displayed click and collect availability must match the collection SLA provided in your feed.
- The pick-up availability must be shown before customers are required to enter their payment method.
Important: Pick-up availability can be different from shop local availability. To implement pick up today with a merchant-hosted local shop front (basic), you're required to have a shop selector showing your shop's local availability on your product landing page. However, the pick-up availability for a selected shop can be shown during the checkout flow.
- Display your shop's local or online product price.
- Display a pick-up fee (if a pick-up fee will be charged).
- This may be displayed in your checkout flow alongside shop selection.
- Provide an option to select other shop locations for pick-up.
- This may be displayed in your checkout flow alongside shop selection.
- Allow customers to complete their order (for example, complete the purchase or reserve the item) on your website.
- Provide a pick-up confirmation message when the order is ready (for example, email and SMS).
Website recommendations
In addition to the website requirements above, we recommend the following:
- Show pick-up cut-off time prior to adding the item to basket or at the checkout page.
- Customers should understand when the pick-up will be based on the time that they are placing the order (for example: 'Orders must be placed by 4 p.m.', or 'Order today, pick up tonight' and so on).
- Allow customers to view your fulfilment options before creating an account (for example, provide a 'checkout as guest' option).
- Allow customers to view your fulfilment options before entering their address information.
Step 2: Update feed attributes
In addition to feed requirements for the merchant-hosted local shop front (basic) feature (view full list), the following pick up today attributes will need to be added to the relevant feed. For full details, review the local product data specification.
Attribute | Optional or required? | Feed | Possible values |
Collection method [pickup_method] |
Required Optional starting on 1 September 2024 |
Primary feed or local product inventory feed |
|
Collection SLA [pickup_sla] |
Required | Primary feed or local product inventory feed |
|
Link [link] |
Required | Primary feed | URL parameter or URL path |
Mobile link [mobile_link] |
Optional | Primary feed | URL parameter or URL path |
Ads redirect [ads_redirect] |
Optional | Primary feed | URL parameter or URL path |
Add the collection method and collection SLA attributes to your feeds
If pick up today is available for all shops with the same SLA
When the same pick up today offering is available in all of your shops, add the required attributes to the appropriate items in your primary feed (for example, a customer can buy and collect the XYZ television on the same day in any of your shops nationally).
When you submit collection SLA [pickup_sla]
in your primary feed, you must set the maximum SLA for all your shops. This means that if a product has the SLA 'same day' for most of your shops but 'next day' for a few shops, you need to submit the SLA for this product as 'next day'. To set shop-specific values for the collection SLA [pickup_sla]
or collection method [pickup_method]
attributes, you'll need to submit them in your local product inventory feed.
If pick up today is available for specific shops only
Add the required collection method [pickup_method]
and collection SLA [pickup_sla]
attributes to your local product inventory feed when the pick up today offering is only available at specific shops, or if specific shops offer a different collection method or collection SLA.
If pick up today isn't available for a specific shop or a specific product
If a product in your primary feed isn't eligible for pick up today, set collection method [pickup_method]
to 'not supported'. If the product isn't eligible for pick up today in specific shops, set the collection method [pickup_method]
attribute to 'not supported' in the local product inventory feed.
[pickup_method]
is set to 'not supported', you can leave collection SLA [pickup_sla]
blank.The collection method [pickup_method]
and collection SLA [pickup_sla]
values provided in your local inventory feed will override any collection method or collection SLA values in your primary feed.
Add the link and ads redirect attributes to your feeds
The link [link]
attribute should simply provide a link to a product's omnichannel landing page.
[ads_redirect]
attribute, ensure that the URL matches with the link [link]
attribute domain. If the URLs don't match, the ads redirect [ads_redirect]
attribute will be rejected.Verify and claim your website URL, and make sure that the website URL registered in Merchant Center matches the domain in the link [link]
attribute. If the website URL doesn't match the registered domain, learn how to resolve this issue.
Step 3: Submit your account for review
Once you've updated your feed attributes and reviewed the landing page requirements, request a review of your account:
- Sign in to your Merchant Center account.
- Click the tools icon and then select Local inventory ads setup under 'Tools'.
- Select the country where you wish to activate the pick up today feature.
- In the 'Pick up today' section, tick the box labelled 'My website allows shoppers to buy online and collect in-store'.
- In the 'Example product landing page' section, provide a link to one of your product landing pages in the text box.
- Click Save
- Google will review this link to ensure that your website's functionality meets the landing page requirements for the pick up today with merchant-hosted local shopfront (basic) feature.
- After Google reviews your account, you'll receive a notification in your Merchant Center account informing you that the feature is active. If your account is found to be non-compliant, you will receive a notification in your Merchant Center account with steps to resolve.