Google Product Feed — your store's products in Google Merchant Center

The "Google Merchant Center" extension (that is exactly how the card is labelled in the App Store) exports your store's catalog to Google Merchant Center (merchants.google.com) — Google's product hub. From there your products appear in:

• Shopping campaigns (Google Ads product ads with photo, price and name right in the results);
• free product listings — placements in the "Shopping" tab and Google Search at no cost per click;
• Google Images and search product blocks.

This is not a marketplace: there are no orders inside Google. When a shopper sees a product, they click through to your store's storefront website and place the order there. Merchant Center is a product-data showcase, not a sales channel.

The extension works on a feed model without API keys: after connecting, the platform generates a public product feed in the Google Product Feed format and refreshes it whenever product cards change. All you have to do is point Merchant Center to the feed URL once.

The card is available on a plan with marketing tools (advertising and SEO) and is hidden if no location of the account is in a Google market: the extension is unavailable in Russia, Cuba, Iran, North Korea and Syria.

Step 1. Connecting in Cenaly and getting the feed URL#

1. Open the App Store (admin.cenaly.ru/app-store): integration cards sit in the single grid of the "Account" tab together with the other extensions.
2. Find the "Google Merchant Center" card — searching by name is the quickest way.
3. Click "Configure": the settings open in a modal window right on top of the storefront, without taking you off the page.
4. Pick the location you are enabling the export for in the window header.
5. Click "Connect" — no API credentials are needed, the feed model has no keys.
6. After connecting, the card shows feed links in two formats — XML and CSV; each row has a 📋 copy button ("Copied" appears after the click).
7. Copy the URL you need. URL shape: https://cdn.cenaly.ru/feeds/googlefeed/{account-id}/{location-id}.xml (and .csv for the CSV version).

The label of the links block and the hint under it are currently shared by all product feeds and mention Yandex Goods — that is an interface inaccuracy: the links themselves point to your Google feed.

The feed is built from the location's catalog (retail mode) and is regenerated on connect and when a product card changes — when a product is created or edited (title, price, stock in the card). A stock decrement caused by a sale and the deletion of a product do not reach the feed on their own yet — they land there with the next card edit; the regular background catalog/stock reconciliation is not enabled yet. Variations of one product are exported as separate items sharing an item_group_id. Prices account for discounts (sale_price) and channel price rules; stock accounts for the buffer.

There is nothing to regenerate manually: editing a product card refreshes the export by itself.

Step 2. Adding the feed in Merchant Center#

1. Sign in to Google Merchant Center (you need a Google account and a verified store website).
2. Go to the data sources section — "Products" → "Data sources".
3. Click "Add data source" and choose adding products on a schedule from a file (scheduled fetch).
4. Specify the country of sale and language, and name the source.
5. In the file URL field paste the feed link from step 1 (XML recommended).
6. Set the fetch schedule (frequency and time) and save.

Google will download the feed from the URL and submit the products for review. Initial review usually takes a few hours — up to 3 business days.

The exact Merchant Center menu labels may differ — look for the data sources section and the option to fetch a file from a URL on a schedule.

Which format to choose: XML or CSV#

Both formats contain the same Google Product Feed fields. XML (RSS 2.0 with the g: namespace) is the recommended choice: it validates more strictly and handles multiple images and variations more reliably. CSV is convenient if you want to open the feed in a spreadsheet and check the contents manually. For Merchant Center choose XML.

Key feed fields:

How Google fetches the feed#

Google downloads the feed itself on a schedule (scheduled fetch) from the URL you provided — nothing needs to be pushed. The recommended frequency is once a day; for stores with frequent price and stock changes you can fetch more often. The platform regenerates the feed when a product card is edited, so every fetch sees the data as it was last saved in the catalog.

Requirements and common problems#

• Working product links. The link field must lead to a working product page — the store must have the web catalog enabled (the customer-facing storefront of the location). The platform fills in the storefront address itself: the location's own domain is used as is, and a bare platform subdomain is expanded to the full address (demo → demo.cenaly.ru).
• Photo required. A product without an image (image_link) is rejected. Add photos to all products.
• Description and title. Empty or too-short descriptions lower quality; add meaningful text.

• Currency and country. Merchant Center requires the feed currency to match the country of sale. There is currently no currency selector in the connection settings: the feed is exported in USD. If your Merchant Center account sells in another currency, this is being fixed too — until then the platform may reject the items.
• Moderation. Google checks that the feed data matches the product page (price, availability). Discrepancies cause rejection — keep the catalog and storefront in sync; after fixes Google will pick up updates on the next fetch.
• GTIN/brand. For many categories Google requires valid gtin and brand — fill in barcodes and brands.

Related sections#

• Catalog and Products — feed data source
• Storefront and Domains — where feed links point to
• App Store — where the integration is connected
• Google Ads — launching Shopping campaigns off this feed

Frequently Asked Questions#

Is it paid?#

The extension is paid (a plan with marketing tools) and is configured per location. The Google Merchant Center account itself is free; you pay for clicks in Shopping campaigns via Google Ads, and free listings cost nothing.

Do I need to export anything manually?#

No. The platform generates the feed itself and regenerates it when a product card is edited, and Google fetches the file on schedule. If a product stopped selling or the stock changed only through a sale, open and save the card — that refreshes the export.

XML or CSV?#

For Merchant Center we recommend XML — it validates more strictly. CSV is handy for manual content checks.

Products were rejected — why?#

Most often: no photo, unreachable product links (web catalog not enabled), feed price vs. page mismatch. Product links and the feed currency are currently being checked — until they are fixed, the platform may reject items for a location without its own domain or for a store that does not sell in USD (see "Requirements and common problems"). Everything else is fixed in the catalog and on the storefront — Google will pull the data on the next fetch.

How are product variants (size/color) exported?#

Each variant is a separate item with a shared item_group_id, so Google groups them into one product with a variant selector.