Google Shopping Feed Requirements Checklist for Shopify

Quick answer: Check each product row against Google’s current product data specification, then compare its price, availability, identifiers, variants, image, and destination URL with the live Shopify product page. Shipping, tax, policy, and account status require separate destination and Merchant Center checks. A clean CSV cannot prove approval.

The Google Shopping Feed Readiness Checker can flag a limited set of missing or malformed values in a US CSV/TSV file. It runs in the browser and does not upload products. Treat it as a file preflight, then use Merchant Center diagnostics and Google’s current product data specification for the final country, category, account, and policy requirements.

Start with the destination and source of truth

Before editing columns, record the target country, language, currency, data source, and Shopify market. The same product may need different prices, availability, shipping, or identifiers in different destinations. Confirm which Shopify feed, app, supplemental source, or scheduled fetch owns each value; editing a secondary source can be undone by the next sync.

Google updates its product data specification over time. As checked on 2026-10-25, its current documentation explains required, conditional, and recommended attributes. Do not turn an attribute that applies only to certain products or countries into a universal rule. If a field is conditional, check the condition in Google’s documentation for the product and destination you actually target.

Feed and storefront checklist

Check	What to compare	Why it matters
Product ID	Stable, unique ID for each submitted offer	Makes updates and variant rows traceable to the same offer.
Title and description	Accurate product, material, size, and variant details	Feed text should describe the item and match its destination page.
Price and availability	Feed values, selected Shopify variant, and checkout	A mismatch can trigger a warning or disapproval even when the CSV parses.
Link and image link	Public, working URLs for the exact item and image	A valid-looking URL is not proof Google can crawl the page or fetch the image.
Brand and identifiers	Genuine brand, GTIN, or MPN when applicable	Never invent an identifier; category and product conditions matter.
Variants	Separate offer rows, correct option values, and shared group ID where appropriate	Size/color variants must remain distinguishable while their relationship is clear.
Product category and condition	Values supported by the current specification and actual item	A generic or unsupported category can misdescribe the product.
Shipping, tax, and target country	Merchant Center settings and checkout behavior	These often depend on destination and account configuration, beyond a product row.

For example, a shirt in three sizes may be represented by three offer rows with distinct IDs and size values, while a shared item_group_id connects the variants. Check that each row’s link opens the corresponding selected size and that the displayed availability is real. Do not copy one row three times and change only the size label if the URLs, inventory, or prices differ.

Google’s official feed creation guide describes a broader upload and processing workflow. A local file check cannot see account diagnostics, crawl results, the live checkout, or later policy review. Use the product data specification for attribute rules and the Merchant Center Needs attention page for issues returned after processing.

Google’s current image-link specification says product images must be at least 500 × 500 pixels, with enforcement beginning January 31, 2027. The checker does not fetch or measure image files, so check image dimensions in your source or image workflow separately before that date.

Run a small, traceable preflight

1. Export a copy of the current product source and keep the original unchanged.
2. Check the header row, delimiter, encoding, duplicate IDs, required values, and row shape.
3. Compare a sample of products against public Shopify pages, including a variant, a sale price, and an out-of-stock item.
4. Review target-country shipping, tax, returns, business information, and policy requirements in Merchant Center.
5. Upload or sync through the existing source of truth, then review item and account diagnostics before scaling changes.

The DTCStack checker currently accepts CSV, TSV, or pasted delimited text, up to 5 MiB and 10,000 non-empty rows. It checks only its documented common fields and reports unsupported or manual-check cases. It does not fetch URLs, validate image contents, apply every category rule, or predict account approval. Downloading its issue report does not include product cell values.

Example: resolve a mismatch at its source

Suppose 12 variants share a feed and 2 are flagged because the price on the landing page differs from the submitted price. First compare the two affected variant IDs, target market, sale schedule, and checkout price. If the Shopify market price is the intended price, fix the feed mapping or refresh schedule. If the feed price is correct, fix the storefront output. Recheck those 2 variants after the next sync; changing all 12 rows without identifying the source could spread the mismatch.

Common mistakes

• Treating every documented attribute as required for every product.
• Assuming syntactically valid CSV means the landing page or Merchant Center account is valid.
• Reusing one ID for multiple variants or inventing GTIN/MPN values.
• Changing a feed manually while an app or scheduled source overwrites it.
• Treating shipping and tax as universal row-level checks instead of destination-specific settings.
• Describing a local checker as an approval or ranking guarantee.

Frequently asked questions

What fields are required in a Google Shopping feed?

Requirements vary by product, category, destination, and account setup. Start with Google’s current product data specification, then check conditional attributes for the exact offers and countries you submit.

Can a feed checker guarantee Merchant Center approval?

No. A file checker can identify only the patterns it supports. Google may also review landing pages, images, shipping, tax, business policies, account configuration, and product eligibility.

Should product variants use the same product ID?

Each submitted offer needs a stable identifier. Variants are normally represented as distinct offers with their own attributes and may be linked with a shared item group ID when Google’s current rules call for it.

Does Shopify automatically send every feed field?

The exact fields depend on the Shopify channel or feed app, product data, market, and mapping settings. Review the source configuration and the values Google receives rather than assuming every optional field is populated.

How often should I review the feed?

Review after catalog, price, inventory, market, or feed-mapping changes, and monitor Merchant Center diagnostics after each sync. Keep the source export and issue details together so changes can be traced.