The Google Shopping Feed Spec Is Changing Today

Google is changing their Shopping Feed Specification today (15th September). If you run Google Shopping ads, you should check that you don't need to make any changes, and acquaint yourself with the new format.

What is changing?

• The main changes that may affect you are to the Google Product Taxonomy. Various products have been reclassified or the categories have been simplified. For example you no longer need to add a subcategory for many clothing types like trousers, shorts and shoes.
• Google Product Categories can now be submitted as numbers, rather than long text strings. e.g. "Animals & Pet Supplies>Pet Supplies>Bird Supplies>Bird Cages>Stands". This should make it easier to update your feed in future.
• Improved ID accuracy - GTIN numbers and ID Attributes (probably your item SKU) will be tightened up so you will need to make sure that you aren't using invalid character types.

You can read Google's summary of changes here: https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/6231410

What do I need to do?

Many feeds won't be affected by the changes to the GTIN and ID attributes. The changes to the Google Product Categories are a great opportunity to improve the accuracy of your feed, and so improve your Google Shopping performance.

You can download the Google Product Category Taxonomy here to check whether your products need updating.

Shopping Feeds can be complicated and frustrating to get right. If you need a hand, or have any questions, just send us an email and we'd be happy to check your feed for you.