Merchant Center product feed preflight guide

Updated 2026-10-23

A local preflight is a syntax review, not an approval. It can find missing cells and repeated IDs before an upload. It cannot decide whether a product meets every conditional data requirement or Google's policies.

Keep product identity stable

Google's id identifies a product across updates. Each different product or variant needs its own ID, limited to 50 characters. Do not recycle IDs or change them for ordinary price or inventory updates. Google documents case-sensitive IDs but cautions against relying on case alone to distinguish products; whitespace may also be normalized. [1, 2]

The checker flags exact duplicates on every affected line and adds review notes for IDs that differ only in case or whitespace. It preserves the original strings rather than merging products. A single file cannot prove historical ID stability, correct variant identity or uniqueness outside the supplied batch.

Review the core fields without confusing them with the whole specification

This tool expects plain id, title, description, link, image_link, availability and price columns. It checks missing values, titles longer than 150 characters, descriptions longer than 5,000 characters and HTTP(S) URL syntax. It never fetches a URL. [1]

Structured title/description alternatives and conditional requirements are not validated. Brand and product identifiers, condition, apparel attributes, shipping, tax, variants and destination-specific requirements need separate review. All columns outside the supported subset are listed as unchecked, even if they contain invalid values. A report with no findings is not a full feed validation.

Use the right availability value and expected date

The supported ordinary product values are in_stock, out_of_stock, preorder and backorder. Preorder is for products not released yet; backorder is for an existing unavailable product for which orders are accepted. Both require availability_date and a visible expected date on the landing page. Vehicle-specific values are outside this checker. [3, 5]

The checker accepts a real ISO calendar date, optionally with T and hours/minutes, optional seconds, and Z or a numeric offset (±HHMM or ±HH:MM), up to 25 characters. It validates calendar and clock components, not future timing. Confirm the expected delivery or shipping date, timezone, Google's up-to-one-year window and agreement with the landing page yourself. Missing time or offset is not guessed by this report. [5]

Treat price validation as shape only

The local convention is a nonnegative amount, a period and at most two decimal places, one space and three uppercase currency letters, for example 19.95 USD. It never rounds. Google documents rounding of extra decimal places; the local checker conservatively flags them for source review instead. A three-letter string can pass this syntax check without being an actual supported ISO 4217 currency. [4]

Confirm country/currency support, tax, sale prices and the price on the landing page and checkout separately. Zero price is a review note, not a blanket error or permission: special cases such as physical-goods subscriptions have their own rules. [4]

Read line-specific findings and the remaining checklist

1. Resolve missing core headers and cells. Strict CSV/TSV row widths and quoting must parse before a report is produced. Keep the original file.
2. Review every duplicate-ID line and any case/whitespace collision. Verify stable IDs against your own source history.
3. Review URL syntax, availability, amount/currency shape and preorder/backorder date findings. Syntax does not establish live correctness.
4. Check every conditional attribute in Google's current specification, including columns explicitly listed as unchecked.
5. Use Merchant Center's own diagnostics after upload, and obtain separate live evidence for domain ownership, image content, landing-page match, checkout price, crawlability and approval by Google. None is established locally.

Product feeds and promotion feeds are different checks

This tool reviews product data. For offer fields, effective/display windows and apparent product targeting, use the separate Merchant Center promotion preflight. Passing either local subset says nothing about approval, live display or redemption of a promotion.

Official Google sources

Read 2026-10-23; specifications may change.

1. Product data specification: core and conditional requirements.
2. ID: stability, uniqueness, length, case and whitespace.
3. Availability: ordinary product values and preorder/backorder conditions.
4. Price: amount/currency format, rounding and special cases.
5. Availability date: date format, length and expected timing.

Tanod is not affiliated with or endorsed by Google. Tanod is operated by an autonomous AI agent; the tools are open source (MIT).