How to implement pick up later for local inventory ads

Pick up later allows you to provide a direct online-to-offline experience for your customers. For items that can be collected in store within a specific SLA, regardless of shop availability, pick up later allows you to use your shops as an omnichannel asset and differentiator. Unlike other local inventory ads features, pick up later doesn't require full inventory information.

Pick up later for local inventory ads gives you full flexibility for granular SLA information at the shop level for each product. Additionally, pick up later for local inventory ads is compatible with all of the other local inventory ads products: you can advertise pick up later alongside in-stock inventory in a way that maximises the value of your shops as omnichannel assets.

Pick up later for local inventory ads runs in conjunction with Shopping ads, only surfacing when customers are more likely to engage with pick up later than alternatives, based on user intent.

Implementation guide for pick up later for local inventory ads

In order to implement pick up later for local inventory ads, you must meet the following requirements:

1. You must satisfy all of the requirements for local inventory ads. Review our implementation guide.
2. You must be able to identify your shop locations that are eligible to fulfil online orders.
3. You must be able to fulfil click and collect orders even when a product isn't physically in stock at your shop locations.
4. You must meet the website requirements outlined below, which also include the merchant-hosted local shop front (full) or merchant-hosted local shop front (basic) requirements.
   • Note: If your website offers the 'pick up later' capability but isn't meeting the merchant-hosted local shop front requirements, you may still be eligible to onboard for pick up later with Shopping ads. Our support team may contact you proactively or you can contact us.
5. Verify that your local product inventory feed contains out-of-stock items (with availability [availability] set to 'out_of_stock').
6. Add the required attributes to your primary and local product inventory feed.
7. Link Google Ads and enable your campaigns.
   • Link your Merchant Center and Google Ads accounts.
   • Enable local products in your Shopping campaign. (This step isn't required if you're using a Performance Max campaign.)

Website requirements and recommendations

Your website must meet the requirements listed below on both desktop and mobile devices, including tablets. Once you're certain that your website meets the requirements, submit your example product landing page:

1. In your Merchant Center account, click the tools and settings icon at the top right of the page.
2. Under 'Tools', click Local inventory ads setup.
3. Under 'Countries with Business Profiles', select the country in which you want to request an eligibility review for pick up later for local inventory ads.
4. In the 'Pick up later' section, select If a product isn't in stock, deliver to shop is available.
5. Submit your example product landing page URL in the 'Example product page for pick up later' field.
6. Click Save.
7. Google will conduct an eligibility review of your website.

Important: The Google-hosted local shop front can't be used in combination with pick up later for local inventory ads. For this reason, you'll not be able to select the 'Pick up later' section in the local inventory ads setup if you've implemented the Google-hosted local shop front.

Website requirements

• Display your pick up later option on your landing pages or in your checkout flow.
• Allow customers to select the shop to which their order will be delivered.
  • Shops can be displayed after clicking on a link (e.g. 'check availability') or by entering a postcode or address.
  • Alternatively, shop selection can occur in your checkout flow after a customer has added an item to their basket.
• Display the item's price on your product page.
  • Note: The price must match the value of the price [price] attribute in your primary feed or local inventory feed. Submit the price [price] attribute in your primary feed for national default pricing and in the local product inventory feed for any shop-specific overrides. For a more detailed overview of what constitutes a misrepresentation, please consult our misrepresentation policy.
• Indicate collection date and collection fee (if a collection fee will be charged).
  • This may be displayed in your checkout flow alongside shop selection. For a more detailed overview of what constitutes a misrepresentation, please consult our misrepresentation policy.
• Provide an option to select other shop locations.
  • This may be displayed in your checkout flow alongside shop selection.
• Allow customers to complete their order (e.g. complete the purchase or reserve the item) on your website.
• Provide a collection confirmation message when the order is ready (e.g. email or SMS).
• Don't require customers to enter payment information before showing your fulfilment options. For a more detailed overview of what constitutes a misrepresentation, please consult our misrepresentation policy.

Website recommendations

In addition to the website requirements above, we recommend the following:

• Don't require customers to create an account before showing your fulfilment options (e.g. provide a 'checkout as guest' option).
• Don't require customers to enter address information before showing your fulfilment options.

Feed requirements

Important: Pick up later for local inventory ads allows you to advertise offers for which [availability] is set as 'out of stock'. Inventory offers with [availability] set as 'in stock' will be treated as regular inventory ads.

Pick up later enables you to create ads showing your local products regardless of whether the product is in the shop when the order is placed.

In addition to the feed requirements for the merchant-hosted feature, please add the following attributes to the assigned feeds below. Select the type of merchant-hosted local shop front (MHLSF) that you're using to ensure that you submit the correct values. If you're new to local inventory ads, we recommend that you use a merchant-hosted local shop front (basic). Learn more about the merchant-hosted local shop front

Merchant-hosted local shop front (basic)

Attribute	Required or optional?	Feed	Possible values	Note
Collection method [pickup_method]	Required Optional starting on 1 September 2024	Local product inventory feed (recommended if there are differences between your shops) or primary feed	ship_to_store not_supported Text/tab-delimited example ship to store XML example <g:pickup_method>ship to store</g:pickup_method>	Submit ship_to_store in the local products inventory feed if the product can be delivered to the relevant shop. Submit not_supported if the product can't be delivered to the relevant shops.
Collection SLA [pickup_sla]	Required	Local product inventory feed (recommended if there are differences between your shops) or primary feed	next-day 2-day 3-day 4-day 5-day 6-day multi-week Text/tab-delimited example multi-week XML example <g:pickup_sla>multi-week</g:pickup_sla>	If the item's collection method [pickup_method] is set to not_supported, leave the collection SLA [pickup_sla] blank. Tip: You can set the collection SLA [pickup_sla] to multi-week if you want to show a fixed annotation; the ad will render the annotation 'Shop collection'.
Link [link]	Required	Primary feed	URL parameter or URL path	The link [link] attribute will be used for pick up later for local inventory ads and the merchant-hosted local shop front (basic) feature.
Mobile link [mobile_link]	Optional	Primary feed	URL parameter or URL path	If you have a mobile-optimised page, submit the mobile link [mobile_link] attribute.
Ads redirect [ads_redirect]	Optional	Primary feed	URL parameter or URL path	Use the ads redirect [ads_redirect] attribute to specify additional landing page parameters for a product in a Shopping ad.

Merchant-hosted local shop front (full)

Attribute	Required or optional?	Feed	Possible values	Note
Collection method [pickup_method]	Required Optional starting on 1 September 2024	Local product inventory feed (recommended if there are differences between your shops) or primary feed	ship_to_store not_supported Text/tab-delimited example ship to store XML example <g:pickup_method>ship to store</g:pickup_method>	Submit ship_to_store in the local products inventory feed if the product can be delivered to the relevant shop. Submit not_supported if the product can't be delivered to the relevant shop.
Collection SLA [pickup_sla]	Required	Local product inventory feed (recommended if there are differences between your shops) or primary feed	next-day 2-day 3-day 4-day 5-day 6-day multi-week Text/tab-delimited example multi-week XML example <g:pickup_sla>multi-week</g:pickup_sla>	If the item's collection method [pickup_method] is set to not_supported, leave the collection SLA [pickup_sla] blank. Tip: You can set the collection SLA [pickup_sla] to multi-week if you want to show a fixed annotation; the ad will render the annotation 'Shop collection'.
Link for merchant-hosted local shop front [link_template]	Required	Primary feed	URL parameter or URL path	The link for the merchant-hosted local shop front [link_template] attribute will be used for pick up later for local inventory ads and the merchant-hosted local shop front (full) feature.
Mobile link for merchant-hosted local shop front [mobile_link_template]	Optional	Primary feed	URL parameter or URL path	If you have a mobile-optimised page, submit the mobile link for the merchant-hosted local shop front [mobile_link_template] attribute
Ads redirect [ads_redirect]	Optional	Primary feed	URL parameter or URL path	Use the ads redirect [ads_redirect] attribute to specify additional landing page parameters for a product in a Shopping ad.

Best practices

You may show the pick up later option in ads showing your local products if an item is out of stock at a local shop but can be delivered to the local shop for a customer to collect.

• Set the following attribute values in your local product inventory feed:
  • Availability [availability]: 'out_of_stock'
  • Collection method [pickup_method]: 'ship_to_store'
    • Note: Collection method will be optional starting on 1 September 2024
  • Collection SLA [pickup_sla]: choose one of the following values: 'next-day', '2-day', '3-day', '4-day', '5-day', '6-day', 'multi-week'
  • If you were previously activated for pick up later for Shopping ads and would now like to migrate to pick up later for local inventory ads also, submit: availability [availability]: 'out of stock' in your local product inventory feed

Note: You may only select one omnichannel fulfilment option for each item in your inventory feed. Inserting two rows for the same item at the same shop will cause an error.

Implement both the pick up later feature and the pick up today feature to show your full range of fulfilment options to customers. Please review the pick up today implementation options.