Google Merchant Center is Google's product catalog platform that powers paid Shopping ads and free shopping placements (Shopping carousel, Image Search, Google Lens) across Google's surfaces.
Merchants submit a product feed in XML, TSV, or via the Content API. Required attributes per product include id, title, description, link, image_link, availability, price, brand, gtin or mpn, condition, and shipping. Optional but valuable: color, size, material, google_product_category.
The most common rejection reason is price mismatch between the feed and the landing page. Tax handling differs by region — feed prices include VAT/GST in the EU, UK, AU, BR but exclude tax in the US. Availability must match real inventory; selling an in-stock-flagged item that's actually out of stock triggers warnings and eventual suspension.
Beyond Shopping ads, merchants who submit feeds gain free "Surfaces Across Google" placements without any paid spend. For most ecommerce stores in 2026 a feed is mandatory infrastructure.