How To Guides

How To Guides

The Marketplaces Integration for Google Shopping does not currently support Miva's Price Groups. If you are currently running or plan to run promotions using the Price Groups feature on Miva, it is recommended to use a Template Based Feed instead.

Google Merchant Center

1. Sign up for Google Merchant Center
Google Merchant Center

This will require you to login in with your Google Account as well as verify your domain.

Setup Shipping And Tax

Shipping and Sales Tax are handled globally in Google Shopping. These settings must be configured first before you’ll be allowed to send up products. If you get an error like this when you try to add products from Miva to Google Shopping it means you have not setup your Shipping or Tax information.



In Google Merchant Center click on Settings then Shipping. Here you can add a shipping Service. The shipping services you setup here must match what you offer on your website.



For more information see this link:

Tax & Shipping

Sales Tax



2. Enable Google Shopping In Miva - Setup Account

Click the + Button to add a Google Account, and sign in using your same google account you used to signup for Google Merchant Center.

Configure Product Settings

For each product you want to send to Google Shopping you will need to add the required fields Google Requires. The fields which are required will vary based on the products you sell.

For more info:

Edit Product -> Marketplace - Google Shopping Products Settings

For more information on the Google Product Category see this link:

Google Product Category

Attributes / Inventory Variants

If you have products which use inventory variants and they have attributes such as size, color, material or pattern you will need to go to each inventory variant and populate the Google Shopping Settings with the correct data.

This will allow Miva to send up individual product listings for each size/color combination which google requires.

Create Product

Once the product is created it will appear in the batch list:

Creating Products With Variants

The “Create Product” button will only ever create a single product on Google Shopping. If you have a product that has inventory variants, you will need to populate the correct settings for each variant under Google Shopping Product Settings Tab.

Variant Images

If you have a product with a lot of variants you can either assign images for each variant or on the master product there is a settings to set which image gets used for each of the variants called Variation Image Types. Setting this at the master product, will automatically use the image types selected on the variation products.

To create variant products, click the “Upload/Update All Products” button:

This will go though all products (and variants) and create any variant listing on Google Merchant Center.

Miva will automatically create a Group ID which is what Google uses to link the variant products together to the master product.

Upload / Update All Products

This button is available at the product level as well as under the Global settings. It does the same functionality no matter where it is clicked.

Before a product is pushed up to Google Shopping after this button is clicked, Miva will update the Google Shopping inventory status based on the current inventory count. Google has 3 inventory states:

In Stock, Out of Stock and Preorder

If a product was out of stock, but now you have some available Miva will automatically change the Google Shopping Availability to be In Stock.

Updating Individual Products

Once a product has been created you can update the price as well as the inventory status. To do this select the product record you want to edit. Here you will see two buttons available:

Update Inventory

Adjust Price

Keep in mind your price on Google Shopping must match what you are your Miva Store price.

Price Groups / Product Discounts

Price Groups Discounts are not currently supported with Google Shopping. If you have product prices on sale using specific sale price or some other price group discount you would need to import those prices into the “sale price” field under Google Shopping Settings for the correct price to be sent to Google.

Inventory Update on Purchase

When a product is purchased, if there is a active listing on Google Shopping, Miva will make a call to Google to make sure its inventory status is correct. Say for example you just sold the last remaining item for a product, on purchase Miva will make a call to Google Shopping to change its inventory state to be Out of Stock.

Scheduled Task

Google Shopping supports schedule tasks so you can setup a schedule task to automatically update all products daily. This will ensure Google always has the correct price & inventory count. This also keeps your listings from expiring

This will perform the same task as clicking the Upload/Update All Product button but it will do it automatically and in the background.

Google Shopping

Google ID Item

All items that are variants of the same product must have the same item group id. If you have a “Parent SKU” that is shared by all variants of a product, you can provide that as the value for 'item group id'.

When to include: For Brazil, France, Germany, Japan, the UK, and the US, required for all items with variants that use these detailed product attributes: ‘color’, ‘size’, ‘pattern’, ‘material’, ‘age group’, ‘gender’, ‘size type’ and ‘size system’. Recommended for all other countries.

Title

This is the name of your item which is required. We recommend you include characteristics such as color or brand in the title which differentiates the item from other products.

When to include: Required for all items.

Condition

Google Shopping allows the promotion of quality second-hand items. Google Shopping also allows the promotion of refurbished items as long as they comply with local laws and regulations and with our policies.

There are only 3 accepted values:

• 'new' [new]: The product is brand-new and has never been used. It's in its original packaging, which has not been opened.
• 'refurbished' [refurbished]: The product has been professionally restored to working order, is "as new", and comes with warranty. The packaging may or may not be the original packaging. This is sometimes referred to as "remanufactured".
• 'used' [used]: Use this value if 'new' and 'refurbished' don't apply. For example, if the product has been used before, is a refilled printer cartridge, the original packaging has been opened, or the original packaging is missing.
• When to include: Required for all items

Price

Any user in the target country has to be able to buy the item for the price shown on Shopping without paying for a membership. Items with variable prices, such as in auctions, should not be submitted. All products must be sold at fixed prices. Your websites must provide a way for any user in the target country to purchase the product through an online payment service, directly from the website or through other alternative payment methods such as cash on delivery, invoicing or payment upon collection. Any user means all legitimate online shoppers that access your websites from Google Shopping.

The price of the item has to be prominent on the landing page. The price on the landing page must match the price you submitted to Google in your product data. If multiple items are on the same page with multiple prices, it has to be straightforward for the user to find the correct item and corresponding price.

When to include: Required for all items.

Availability

Providing the freshest availability status of your item is important so users know that the item will be delivered in a timely manner.

Google Shopping does not allow the promotion of products providing incorrect availability information to users.

The availability you provide on your landing page and in your product data must match. The only exception we allow is an out of stock item in your product data showing up as an in stock on your landing page. Note that correct availability information is based on being able to deliver the product to the target country, not to the user’s current location.

The 'availability' attribute has 3 accepted values:

• 'preorder' [preorder]: You’re currently taking orders for this product, but it’s not yet been released. You can use the ‘availability date’ attribute to indicate the day that the product becomes available for delivery.
• 'in stock' [in stock]: You’re currently accepting orders for this product and can fulfill the purchase request. You’re certain that the item will ship (or be in-transit to the customer) in a timely manner because it is available for sale, such as it’s in stock or available for order.
• 'out of stock' [out of stock]: You’re currently not accepting orders for this product, or the product is not available for purchase.

When to include: Required for all items.

Google Product Category

The 'google product category' attribute indicates the category of the product being submitted, according to the Google product taxonomy. This attribute accepts only predefined values, taken from the product taxonomy tree. If your items fall into multiple categories, include only one category which is the most relevant.

For all items, submitting more specific categories can make bidding by category more precise.

Any category from Google’s product taxonomy must include the full path or the category ID. 5598 or ‘Apparel & Accessories > Clothing > Outerwear > Coats & Jackets’ are acceptable values, but ‘Coats & Jackets’ is not.

When to include: Required for all items that fall within the 'Apparel & Accessories', 'Media', and 'Software' categories. If your products do not fall into one of those categories, this attribute is recommended but not required.

Description

Include only information relevant to the item. Describe its most relevant attributes, such as size, material, intended age range, special features, or other technical specs. Also include details about the item’s most visual attributes, such as shape, pattern, texture, and design, since we may use this text for finding your item.

We recommend that you submit around 500 to 1,000 characters, but you can submit up to 5,000 characters. Descriptions should follow standard grammar rules and end with a punctuation mark.

When to include: Required for all items.

Global Trade Item Number

Use the 'gtin' attribute to submit Global Trade Item Numbers (GTINs) in one of the following formats:

• UPC (in North America / GTIN-12): 12-digit number like 323456789012; 8-digit UPC-E codes should be converted to 12-digit codes
• EAN (in Europe / GTIN-13): 13-digit number like 3001234567892
• JAN (in Japan / GTIN-13): 8 or 13-digit number like 49123456 or 4901234567894
• ISBN (for books): 10 or 13-digit number like 1455582344 or 978-1455582341. If you have both, only include the 13-digit number. ISBN-10 are deprecated and should be converted to ISBN-13.
• ITF-14 (for multipacks / GTIN-14): 14-digit number like 10856435001702.

When to include: Refer to the Unique Product Identifier Rules for your target country.

Manufacturer Part Number

Manufacturer Part Numbers (MPNs) are alpha-numeric codes created by the manufacturer of a product to uniquely identify it among all products from the same manufacturer.

When to include: Refer to the Unique Product Identifier Rules for your target country.

Brand

Use the following set of rules to provide the correct identifiers for each of your products.

For any items with ‘new’ condition and GTINs assigned by the manufacturer, submit unique product identifiers using these attributes:

• ‘gtin’ required
• ‘brand’ required
• ‘mpn’ recommended

Store brand items and other products for which you are the only seller generally don't have and won't be required to include GTINs. Other products that commonly don't have GTINs assigned by the manufacturer include replacement and original equipment manufacturer (OEM) parts, custom products, antiques, and some apparel products. In addition, you may not have GTINs for items with availability ‘preorder’ or condition ‘used.’ When no GTIN is assigned, submit unique product identifiers using these attributes:

• 'brand' required
• 'mpn' required

Some products don't have a clearly associated brand, including movies, books, and musical recordings. You don't need to submit a brand in cases like these.

In the rare situation where your product has neither a GTIN nor MPN (for example, made-to-order or handmade items), set ‘identifier exists’ to 'FALSE' to indicate that you have no identifier for the product.

Sale Price

Use this attribute to submit the advertised sale price of the item. Learn more about submitting sale price information.

When to include: Recommended for items on sale. If your item is on sale and you don’t include this attribute, the sale price must be updated as the value in the 'price' attribute.

Product Type

This attribute also indicates the category of the product being submitted, but you can provide your own classification. Unlike the 'Google product category', you can include more than one 'product type' attribute value if products apply to more than one category. Please include the full category string. For example, if your products belong in Refrigerators list the full string: Home & Garden > Kitchen & Dining > Kitchen Appliances > Refrigerators. You must use " > " as a separator, including a space before and after the symbol. If you submit multiple values, only the first value will be used as the ‘product type’ for your Shopping campaigns. Learn more about using product type to organize your Shopping campaigns.

When to include: Strongly recommended for all items if you have a categorization for your items.

Expires

This is the date that an item listing will expire. If you do not provide this attribute, items will expire and no longer appear in Google Shopping results after 30 days. You cannot use this attribute to extend the expiration period to longer than 30 days.

When to include:If you would like an item to expire earlier than 30 days from the upload date of the feed.

Color

This defines the dominant color(s) for an item. When a single item has multiple colors, you can submit up to two additional values as accent colors:

• Combine the colors with ‘/’ in order of prominence (dominant color first, then at most two accent colors). For example, a black shoe with green accents should have a color value of 'Black/Green'. In the case of non-deformable goods in Apparel like jewelry or wooden accessories where finishes or materials are equivalent to color, the finish or material name can be submitted in the color attribute (e.g., 'Mahogany' vs. 'Stainless Steel' vs. 'Rose Gold').
• Limit the number of colors submitted to three values per item.
• If you're using XML, you must represent the '/' with /

When to include: Required for all products in an item group that vary by color. Required for all apparel items in feeds that target Brazil, France, Germany, Japan, the UK, and the US. Recommended for all products for which color is an important, distinguishing attribute.

Material

The material or fabric that a product is made out of. For example, a high heel pump might have values of “Leather”, “Denim”, “Suede”, etc.

When to include: Required for all products in an item group that vary by material. Recommended for all products for which material is an important, distinguishing attribute.

Pattern

The pattern or graphic print featured on a product. For example, a t-shirt might have a logo of a sports team and have pattern values of “Bears”, “Tigers”, etc. A dress might come in two prints, and have pattern values of “Polka Dot”, “Striped”, “Paisley”, etc.

As a rule of thumb, if a user can choose to select different patterns on the landing page of your product, include all variant items in the same item group. Otherwise, use separate item groups.

When to include: Required for all products in an item group that vary by pattern. Recommended for all products for which pattern is an important, distinguishing attribute.

Gender

When to include: Required for all products in an item group that vary by gender. Required for all apparel items in feeds that target Brazil, France, Germany, Japan, the UK, and the US. Recommended for all products for which gender is an important, distinguishing attribute.

Age Group

Use the 'age group' attribute to indicate the demographic of your item.

When to include: Required for all products in an item group that vary by age group. Required for all apparel items in feeds that target Brazil, France, Germany, Japan, the UK, and the US. Recommended for all products for which age group is an important, distinguishing attribute.

Size

This indicates the size of a product. For ‘Apparel & Accessories’ items, you can also submit the ‘size type’ and ‘size system’ attributes to provide more details about your sizing.

When to include: Required for all products in an item group that vary by size. Required for all apparel items in the 'Apparel & Accessories > Clothing' and 'Apparel & Accessories > Shoes' product categories in product data that targets Brazil, France, Germany, Japan, the UK, and the US. Recommended for all products for which size is an important, distinguishing attribute.

Size Type

Use this attribute to indicate the cut of your item.

When to include: Recommended for all apparel items.

Size System

Use this attribute to indicate the country’s sizing system in which you are submitting your item.

When to include: Recommended for all apparel items.

Adwords Redirect URL

Allows advertisers to specify a separate URL that can be used to track traffic coming from Google Shopping. If this attribute is provided, you must make sure that the URL provided through 'adwords redirect' will redirect to the same website as given in the ‘link’ or ‘mobile link’ attribute.

This attribute can be used in Shopping campaigns. Learn more about the 'adwords redirect' attribute.

Multipack

Multipacks are packages that include several identical products to create a larger unit of sale, submitted as a single item. Merchant-defined multipacks are custom groups of identical products submitted as a single unit of sale. The ‘multipack’ attribute indicates the number of identical products in a merchant-defined multipack. Manufacturer-defined multipacks are defined as a package of several individually packed identical items sold as a unit.

When to include: Required if applicable to submit merchant-defined multipacks for all countries except Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, India, Mexico, Norway, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and Turkey.