Google Merchant Center is introducing automatic shipping updates under the automatic improvements tab to enhance the accuracy of shipping information for products. This feature helps customers better predict delivery times and improves overall shipping performance. Currently, it is active only in the United States, while merchants outside the U.S. can opt-in.
Benefits
Accurate shipping information allows merchants to:
- Keep shipping data up-to-date.
- Help customers anticipate delivery times.
- Enable customers to compare delivery times between products.
- Increase the likelihood of purchases influenced by shipping time.
How It Works
Automatic shipping updates use historical tracking data obtained through partner linking. This data includes:
- Crawled shipping speeds: Data crawled from merchant websites, reflecting shipping speeds shown online.
- Performance shipping speeds: Actual delivery times based on location-specific order tracking history.
The system uses either crawled or performance shipping speed data to update shipping information. Historical tracking data is integrated by linking a partner account and sharing tracking history, which must be initiated from the partner's website. Once linked, merchants can enable automatic shipping updates for more accurate shipping info.
Note that shipping information from automatic updates may differ from other platforms or merchant websites.
Getting Started
To use automatic shipping updates, merchants must:
- Allow the Google StoreBot crawler to crawl their website for shipping data.
- Submit historical tracking data using Order Tracking Signals via Content API.
- Link their Merchant Center account to a partner account to share tracking history.
By default, all Merchant Center accounts are opted out of automatic shipping updates. Merchants can opt-in by selecting options (prices, availability, condition, or shipping) on the Automatic Improvements page or by linking a partner account, which enables automatic updates by default.
Best Practices
To maximize the benefits of automatic shipping updates:
- Keep shipping data on websites or partner accounts current.
- Enable automatic shipping updates early.
- Continuously update and improve shipping policies based on insights from automatic shipping updates.
