## Summary

Merchant Center accounts store the product information for Shopping campaigns.
You upload product information to your merchant account through product feeds.
You can create product feeds that upload multiple products at a time in
the [Merchant Center](https://merchants.google.com) or through the [Content API for Shopping](https://developers.google.com/shopping-content/guides/products/products-api). The Content API
for Shopping also lets you upload and update individual products.

> [!NOTE]
> **Objective:** We strongly recommend you use the Content API for Shopping. The Content API is much more flexible and scalable than the manual steps.

With both feed and API uploads, newly uploaded products are subject to data
quality checks that may take up to 72 hours to resolve. These products will have
the `pending` status in the meantime. See the [Product status definitions](https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/160491) page
to learn more.

If you already have product information in an eCommerce platform, you may be
able to connect that eCommerce platform to the Merchant Center and have the
information shared automatically. Check with your eCommerce platform provider to
see if any connectors exist for sharing product information with the Merchant
Center.

All products must adhere to the [Product data specification](https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/188494). Read
through the specification to understand what product attributes must be provided
for a product to be valid. Some types of products require different attributes
than others.

## Manual steps

If this if your first time creating a feed, it may take a few tries to
resolve all the errors. See the [Google Advertiser Community](https://www.en.advertisercommunity.com/t5/Google-Shopping-and-Merchant/bd-p/google-shopping) for help.

1. See [About feeds](https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/188478) and [File formats for product data](https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/160567) to plan the structure of your feed.
2. Follow the steps in [Upload a feed](https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/188477).

## Automatic steps

You can use the Content API for Shopping to bulk upload product information
through feeds and to send individual product information.

You can only automate scheduled feeds.

- Use the [`datafeeds`](https://developers.google.com/shopping-content/reference/rest/v2.1/datafeeds) service to create, update, and delete registered feeds.
- Use the [`products`](https://developers.google.com/shopping-content/reference/rest/v2.1/products) resource to upload and update individual products.

  See the [Product data specification](https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/188494) to learn which fields are required
  for your specific product.

  Use [`products.insert`](https://developers.google.com/shopping-content/reference/rest/v2.1/products/insert) to upload product information. If you're sending
  multiple products at once, see [Sending batch requests](https://developers.google.com/shopping-content/guides/how-tos/batch).

  Product errors are signaled with a non-2xx HTTP status message, and
  the body of the response contains more information.

  Even successfully uploaded products may return warnings that you
  should examine to improve your proudct data. See the [common errors](https://developers.google.com/shopping-content/guides/how-tos/common-errors) guide
  for more information.

  You can use the [`productstatuses`](https://developers.google.com/shopping-content/reference/rest/v2.1/productstatuses) service to see the status of products on
  you account.

  Individual products uploaded through the Content API for Shopping
  expire either after 30 days or on their manually set expiration date,
  whichever comes first.

  In order to keep products from expiring, they must be updated or
  re-inserted. It's important to schedule a regularly occurring refresh to the
  Content API for Shopping's [`products`](https://developers.google.com/shopping-content/reference/rest/v2.1/products) endpoint.