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      SETTING UP YOUR SITE ON GOOGLE SHOPPING

      In this article you will find resources on how to set up Google Shopping and other helpful tools that you can use for your business.

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      Accessing Google Merchant Account

      1. Log into Google Merchant Center, url: http://www.google.com/merchants
      2. Log in using your email and password for your Google Analytics account
      3. Confirm the site is not already entered by searching for the company. We recommend that you do partial name searches
      4. Information in this document

      Adding Accounts:

      1. Click Add Account
      2. Add the following items:
        • Company = Company Name (can’t add inc., leave it off, & is ok)
        • Description = copy information from the about us page on the site. The number of characters is limited so you may need to remove some text
        • Website URL: Add URL to the homepage
      3. Save Changes

      Verify & Claim the Site (In Google Merchant)

      1. From the dashboard, search for the site you just added
      2. Click on the display name
      3. Click on the Settings on left
      4. Click on General
      5. Click "Verify this URL"
      6. Click on "Alternative Methods" tab
      7. Click "Add a Meta Tag to your site's Home Page"
      8. Copy the Meta Tag (Ctrl+C)
      9. Navigate to the site's dashboard in WSM
      10. Navigate to the homepage, typically Content>Site Pages>Brown Paper Bag Icon>Home
      11. Edit Home Page
      12. In "Custom Head Code" field paste the Meta Tag (Ctrl+V)
      13. If there is already a code in the Custom Head Code field put the new one first, or above the old
      14. Save Changes
      15. Return to Google Base verification screen
      16. Click "Verify" - Important to do this
      17. Click "Continue"
      18. Click "Claim this URL"
      19. Double-check that it now says "Verified and Claimed!"
      20. Click Save Changes

      Add the Data Feeds

      1. Specify Data Feed File
        1. In WSM, navigate to Data > Data Feeds
        2. Get the Data Feed File Name by clicking the Google Base option. The file name will show up as a download, also the standard format for the files are wsm-TAG.xml.gz
        3. In Google Base click Products > Feeds > PLUS Sign
        4. Type: Products
        5. Set country of sale
        6. Set Language
        7. Leave box checked for Shopping
        8. Click Continue
        9. Specify Data Feed File name. ie wsm-dds.xml.gz - get the website 'tag', in this case dds from the file site tag
        10. Click Scheduled fetch
        11. Click Continue
        12. File name enter the same information from the data feed file name above
        13. Fetch frequency daily
        14. Set time
        15. Set time zone
        16. File url will be the full domain name plus the feed name is https://DOMAIN HERE/base.xml.gz
        17. Click Continue
        18. Click the feed name
        19. Click settings
        20. Click Feed Settings
        21. Change "Encoding" to UTF-8
        22. Delimiter auto-detect
        23. Uncheck Use quoted fields
        24. Click Save
        25. Verify that on Data > Data Feeds for the site that there are no multiple files. Some larger sites have more than one and will need steps a-g repeated. Multiple files occur when a site sells more than 99,999 products.
        26. Once you confirm all feeds are created you can click on Processing and Fetch Now for each feed

      Data Feeds Product Criteria

      1. Has an Image
      2. Price > 0
      3. Hidden = No
      4. Availability Status = Available, Limited Supply, Unique or Inventory
      5. If Availability Status is Inventory, then Inventory Qty needs to be >0

      File updates in WSM

      1. The Google base file process will run once a day.
      2. When the process runs:
        1. it will look at all qualifying products, based on the criteria above
        2. checks to see if any of those products were updated since the last time the file was generated
        3. If no updates occurred on those products, it will NOT create a new file for that day.
        4. If updates occurred, then a new file has generated
        5. the timestamp in the file "<updated>2019-06-26T19:17:50Z</updated>" is based on UTC from the start of the file generation. This example would translate to "2019-06-26 12:17:50 PDT"

      Adding Shipping Information

      Populating the TOTAL PRICE column on the shopping results page is accomplished by having the shipping information in the Google Account. Also, shipping & tax is now a requirement by Google. As long as tax is enabled at the System > Configuration level of the site we send tax via the file. But if your site is using calculated shipping (UPS, FedEx, and/or USPS) we need to add this manually to the account.

      1. Log onto Google Merchant
      2. Search for Domain
      3. Click the Site Name
      4. Click + in front of Settings in the Left Menu
      5. In another window access the sites System > Configuration > Shipping & Handling for Shipping Methods. If you are only using Basic and or Free Shipping then you do not need to add any shipping information to Google. If you are using any of the following then you do: UPS, FedEx, or USPS
      6. Click Shipping > click the + 
      7. Add Service Name (UPS, FedEx, and/or USPS)
      8. Enter Service Name (UPS, FedEx, and/or USPS)
      9. Enter Service Area (United States)
      10. Enter Currency
      11. Enter Delivery time "transit time in business days" (ask client)
        Review the methods and select the most common and cheapest shipping. ie. UPS Ground, FedEx Ground, for USPS select the method with the longest delivery.
        If you are using more than one carrier step the method for the carrier that appears first in System Configuration, i.e. If they have UPS and FedEx then setup UPS Ground first, or if they have FedEx and USPS, then setup FedEx Ground first.
      12. Click Save

      Assigning Products to a Category

      Now that you have your account and shipping information set up it's important to make sure your products are assigned to the correct Google Base correct shopping category. This is done by visiting the Google Base website and accessing their current category listings - https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/1705911?hl=en.

      1. Once there, click on the link for "Taxonomy without numeric IDs in Plain Text (.txt)" (currently the link is http://www.google.com/basepages/producttype/taxonomy.en-US.txt). 
      2. After opening the link you will see the categories and subcategories for product assignments within Google Base.
      3. Next, navigate to the correct category tree and update your import file (under the category tree) with the information that matches your product. For example, if your product was a tow hitch you would enter this category tree info: Vehicles & Parts > Vehicle Parts & Accessories > Motor Vehicle Parts > Motor Vehicle Towing.
      4. Then, go to your WSM admin and navigate to Data > CSV Profiles > Google Category Update EXPORT
      5. Export your products and make the correct category assignments for the products you are planning to update in Google Base.
      6. Save the file as a CSV when you have completed your update. 
      7. lastly, use the import option to update your products to the correct category by going to Data > CSV Profiles > Google Category Update IMPORT profile and then click on import to update your products