Hello everyone!
I’ve got some genuinely good news to share today, and it’s about something that’s been causing a lot of confusion (and a fair bit of stress) for Shopify merchants going through the move from the Content API to the Merchant API.
If you’ve been following along, you’ll know we originally flagged that product IDs would change as part of this migration, for example, the country code shifting from something like Shopify_GB for the UK to Shopify_ZZ. And sure enough, merchants started reporting exactly that. But here’s the twist: it wasn’t actually the migration causing it.
So What’s Really Going On?
I had users reaching out telling me, “Emmanuel, I migrated to the Merchant API a month ago and my product IDs still haven’t changed.” At first, that didn’t make sense to me, it seemed to contradict everything we thought we knew. So I went digging.
I pulled up an account that had already migrated to the Merchant API and, sure enough, everything looked fine. The product IDs still had the correct country code. No issues at all.
Then I looked at a different account, one where the merchant had uninstalled and reinstalled the Google & YouTube app at some point. And there it was: every single product ID had changed to ZZ. Instead of keeping its proper country code (like DK).
That was the lightbulb moment. The product ID change isn’t triggered by the migration itself; it’s triggered by uninstalling and reinstalling the app. But I could not prove this because I did not want to ask my clients to test my theory. It would be crazy to put a client in jeopardy just to prove in which scenario this issue happens.
It’s Official (Straight From Google)
I want to be clear that this isn’t just my theory. Thanks to Martijn tagging me on a post, I also want to thank Barry for pushing this as well, this got in front of Ginny Marvin, a Google Ads Product Liaison, who confirmed the following directly:
The Merchant API migration is a standard transition for all Content API users, and it does not rewrite product IDs. – Affected API users have already been notified directly with migration resources. – The migration deadline is August 18th, and no action is required on your end. – If you’re using the Google & YouTube app on Shopify, do not uninstall and reinstall it. – The product ID change is a separate bug, currently affecting a small number of merchants, and Google is actively working on a fix in the coming weeks.
So to put it simply: leave your app connected as it is, and you’ll be fine.
A Bit of Bittersweet Context
Now, I’ll be honest with you, this isn’t exactly breaking news to me. I’ve actually known about this specific bug for about a year now. I raised it with Google a while back and never heard anything back. So while I’m glad it’s finally being acknowledged and a fix is on the way, it’s a little disappointing that it’s taken this long to get in front of the right team.
That said, this is a good reminder of just how big Google is, and how something that seems small on the surface can take a long time to reach the people who can actually fix it. It’s not ideal, but at least we’re moving in the right direction now.
Unfortunately, this also means that the merchants who already uninstalled and reinstalled the app during this period are currently stuck with the ZZ product IDs and the resulting loss of historical performance stats. That’s a real cost, and I feel for those affected. But for everyone else, this is great news going forward.
The Bottom Line
The Merchant API migration deadline is August 18th, no action needed, it happens automatically. Do not uninstall and reinstall your Google & YouTube app on Shopify. If you haven’t touched the app, your product IDs are safe. If you’ve already been affected, Google is actively deploying a fix.
A big thank you to Martijn for flagging this and tagging me, and to Genie and the Google team for finally getting back to us with clarity. This is exactly the kind of thing that gets sorted faster when the community works together and keeps pushing for answers.
I hope this clears up the confusion for a lot of you. As always, if you’ve got questions or you’re seeing something different on your end, drop a comment below or reach out, I’m always happy to dig into it.
Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you in the next one.