updated 30 November 2015
Product variations are products that are similar and only differ in color, material or pattern,…
It is recommended to use variations if you have products that are similar. Lets say we have FeedArmy’s Premium paint and I have 10 different colors. If I would submit these 10 products without adding the variation values than Google will consider these as duplicates and will not list them on Google Shopping. If however you do add the variation values, than these products will be listed inside Google Shopping.
If you have browsed Google Shopping you might have noticed that certain products have options available in a form of a select form, these will not always be available to you. Currently as of writing only Apparel products can have options inside Google Shopping. Google has mentioned that it is planning to integrate this feature in the future for other product types. For products outside of the apparel category will be listed as normal.
Adding groups
When adding groups, you need to give each group a unique identifier, this can be any random number and or name, as long as all groups that belong to each other have the same Group Identifier.
XML
<g:item_group_id>myproduct01</g:item_group_id>
TXT
| A | B | C | D | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | id | title | description | item_group_id |
| 2 | id1 | my title – blue | my description | id1 |
| 3 | id2 | my title – orange | my description | id1 |
Adding multiple colors, patterns, sizes or materials
When adding colors you can have one main color and up to two accents. For example if you have brown shoes with a grey accent. You would add the following identifiers separated with a / (Brown/ Grey).
- You can add up to 3 colors
- The forward slash / in an XML data feed must be replaced with a html entity /
Color
XML
<g:color>Brawn / Grey</g:color>
TXT
- Header : color
- Item Row value : Grey
Notes : You can have one primary color (first color in the value) and up to 2 accent colors, each color separated by a forward slash. If you have jewelry you can use the gold Karat as a color.
For Example : Navy Blue / Orange / White
Patterns
XML
<g:pattern>Striped</g:pattern>
TXT
- Header : pattern
- Item Row value : Striped
Notes : Only one pattern per product
Sizes
XML
<g:size>XL</g:size>
TXT
- Header : size
- Item Row value : XL
Notes : Only one size per product
Example size values :
- XXS, XS, S, M, L, XL, 1XL, 2XL, 3XL, 4XL, 5XL, 6XL
- 00, 0, 02, 04, 06, 08, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, 30, 32, 34
- 24×30, 24×32, 24×34
- 5, 5.5, 6, 6.5, 7, 7.5, 8, 8.5, 9, 9.5, 10, 10.5, 11, 11.5, 12, 12.5, 13, 13.5, 14, 14.5, 15, 15.5, 16
Materials
XML
<g:material>Leather</g:material>
TXT
- Header : material
- Item Row value : Leather
Notes : You can have one primary material (first material in the value) and up to 2 secondary materials
Tips!
- Be sure to add similar titles and descriptions for each grouped product
- When adding a item group id it is required to at least fill in one of the 4 group values, Color, Pattern, Size or Material
- If you are selling jewelry you can add the karat as a color, so for example White Gold 8 Kt
Why are my products not listed as a group on Google Shopping?
If you have listed clothing items and they are not listed as a group than most likely you have not added the same group id. (item_group_id) Double check you have added the same id’s. Or the titles are not similar enough.
If they are not clothing items than you need to wait until Google has this feature available for your products. At the moment it is not possible for all products to be listed as grouped items. You simply need to wait until Google has added this feature for other products.
Google Shopping Specialist
