Google Merchant Center is currently experiencing a technical issue with configuring shipping destinations with overlapping UK postcode regions. Despite appearing as overlapping, in reality, they are not. The root cause can be traced back to Google’s initial failure to account for the unique structure of UK postal codes.
Consider this example: if you create a destination with the grouped postcodes TW9, TW10, and TW11 and subsequently create a second group comprising TW1, TW2, and TW3, Google Merchant Center will indicate overlapping between two regions. It’s important to clarify that this is not the case, highlighting the system’s misinterpretation.
To further illustrate this glitch, another instance would be when targeting M1 versus M11 or N1 versus N11. The system falsely detects these as overlapping regions when in reality, they are distinct.
The Solution From Google
Our Community Managers within the Google Ads community have explained that resolving this issue requires the creation of new shipping settings for the additional postal codes. Google acknowledges that this approach does increase labor and an extensive list of shipping options, yet it remains the sole solution to the issues. Rest assured. We have communicated our feedback to Google.