Starting tomorrow, on the 15th of September 2021, Google will enforce product identifiers: Brand, GTIN, and MPN values for free shopping listings.
However, this was already well known and documented in my requirement list. Therefore, it seems, as of now, the product identifiers will be more of a requirement.
Google also mentioned in October 2020, products that are out of stock, will not be listed, which is self-explanatory, considering shopping ads will also not show.
As of September 15th, 2021, the following new requirements apply to free listings:
- Don’t add the same barcode to different variants. (1 barcode only applies to 1 product)
- You must show the condition attribute
- If your product is sold as a multipack, make sure if the pack is defined by the merchant and not the manufacturer, that you assign a numeric value.
- If you sell apparel products, assign a color and size attribute
- And lastly, don’t list the same product multiple times. However, this is a policy violation regardless of shopping ads as this abuses the ad network policy.