The pick up today feature lets you direct customers to your website when they click on an ad that shows your local product. 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 the feature works and what's required for your primary feed and website.
How it works
- A customer clicks a local inventory ad with distance annotation plus pick-up availability text.
- Google passes a Business Profile shop code where the item is available to the retailer.
- The retailer generates the shop customised landing page for the clicked product.
- On the retailer's website, the customer then has the option to buy or reserve the product online and collect it at the shop nearby.
You must direct customers to the shop that Google passes in the URL generated by the customer's click, even if you can self-detect customers' locations.
Step 1: Review website requirements
To be eligible for pick up today with a merchant-hosted local shop front (full), your website must meet these requirements:
- Fulfil the merchant-hosted local shop front (full) landing page and feed requirements.
- Be able to display a local shop front based on the shop codes passed from your Business Profiles in order to populate shop-specific pricing and availability on the product page.
- 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 an item's click and collect availability, either directly on the landing page or by showing a shop selector with the option to display 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.
- An item's click and collect 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 merchant-hosted local shop front (full), you're required to have the item's shop local availability clearly visible on your product landing page when the page opens, while the pick-up availability for a selected shop can be shown during the checkout flow.
- On your landing page, either display your shop's local product price or ensure that local prices match online prices (if only online prices are displayed).
- Indicate 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, by sending an email and SMS).
- Display shop name and shop location information on your 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 upon loading the page, without requiring the page visitor to scroll.)
- The shop name and city may represent the shop location when the page first opens if the full shop address is displayed when the customer clicks to view shop location details or change to other shop locations.
- 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 upon loading the page, without requiring the page visitor to scroll.)
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
| 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 for merchant-hosted local shop front [link_template] |
Required | Primary feed | URL parameter or URL path |
{store_code} ValueTrack parameter in link for merchant-hosted local shop front [link_template] |
Required | Primary feed | URL parameter or URL path with ValueTrack parameter {store_code} |
Mobile link for merchant-hosted local shop front [mobile_link_template] |
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 the collection SLA [pickup_sla] in your primary feed, you must set the maximum SLA for all of your shops. This means that if a product has the SLA as 'same day' for most of your shops but 'next day' for a few shops, you must submit the SLA for this product as 'next day'. To set shop-specific collection SLA [pickup_sla] or collection method [pickup_method] attribute values, 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, on the other hand, 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.[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 template, mobile link template and ads redirect attributes to your feeds
- Add the link for merchant-hosted local storefront
[link_template]attribute to your primary feed and make sure that you include the{store_code}ValueTrack parameter. - The link for merchant-hosted local shop front
[link_template]attribute should simply 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. Review the examples below:
Example: {store_code} as URL parameter
itemid |
title |
price |
link_template |
ads_redirect |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 123 | 2-Person Camping Tent – Adventure Series | 249.99 GBP | http://mikemart.com/123?store={store_code} |
http://mikemart.com/123?store={store_code}&trackingParameter=value |
Example: {store_code} as part of URL path
itemid |
title |
price |
link_template |
ads_redirect |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| abc | LED torch and carrying case | 19.99 GBP |
http://acmestores.com/456/ |
http://acmestores.com/456/store/ |
-
You can also add the optional mobile link for merchant-hosted local shop front
[mobile_link_template]attribute if you have separate mobile landing pages optimised for mobile devices and mobile tracking.
[ads_redirect] attribute and/or link for merchant-hosted local shop front [link_template] attribute in your primary feed, you must include the {store_code} ValueTrack parameter for both.[ads_redirect] URL matches with the link for merchant-hosted local shop front [link_template] URL. If the URLs don't match, the ads redirect [ads_redirect] attribute will be rejected.[link_template] 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 shop front (full) 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.