Service provider account setup

Before you can offer Merchant Center services to merchants, you must complete these setup steps:

• Establish your organization's Google Cloud project.
• Create your Merchant Center service provider account.
• Install the Merchant API client library or manually integrate with the Merchant API.
• Connect to the Merchant API and register as a developer.

Create your Cloud project

To interact programmatically with Google Merchant Center, set up a Google Cloud project, enable the Merchant API, configure a service account, and generate a JSON key for automated server-to-server authentication.

Google Cloud console

1. In the Google Cloud console, go to Menu > IAM & Admin > Create a Project.

   Go to Create a Project

2. In the Project Name field, enter a descriptive name for your project.

   Optional: To edit the Project ID, click Edit. The project ID can't be changed after the project is created, so choose an ID that meets your needs for the lifetime of the project.

3. In the Location field, click Browse to display potential locations for your project. Then, click Select.
4. Click Create. The Google Cloud console navigates to the Dashboard page and your project is created within a few minutes.

gcloud command

In one of the following development environments, access the Google Cloud command-line tool (gcloud):

• Cloud Shell: To use an online terminal with the gcloud command-line tool already set up, activate Cloud Shell.
  Activate Cloud Shell
• Local Shell: To use a local development environment, install and initialize the gcloud command-line tool.
  To create a Cloud project, use the gcloud projects create command:

  gcloud projects create PROJECT_ID

  Replace PROJECT_ID by setting the ID for the project you want to create.

For further information on Cloud projects, refer to Creating and managing projects in the Google Cloud documentation.

Enable the Merchant API

You must activate Merchant API within your project before you can make calls to it.

Google Cloud console

• In the Google Cloud console, open the left side menu and select APIs & services > Library.
• Search for Merchant API and click the result.

• Click ENABLE.

  Enable the Merchant API

gcloud command

gcloud services enable merchantapi.googleapis.com

For more information, see Enable and disable APIs.

Create a service account

1. In the Google Cloud console, go to IAM & Admin > Service Accounts.
2. Click Create service account.
3. Enter a name and description for your service account and click Create and Continue.

Note: The Google Cloud console wizard includes optional steps to "Grant this service account access to project" and "Grant users access to this service account". Service providers don't need project-level Google Cloud IAM roles for Merchant Center operations. You can skip these optional sections and click Done, because permissions are granted directly inside Merchant Center.

Generate and download a private JSON key

1. Click your newly created service account email address in the list.
2. Go to the Keys tab.
3. Click Add Key > Create new key, select JSON, and download the key file securely to your backend application server.

Important: Your backend application uses this private key file with the Google Client Library to authenticate with Google's APIs automatically.

Create and configure your Merchant Center service provider account

Establish your organization's legal identity in Google Merchant Center. This account acts as the parent container that manages service links and credentials for your merchant base.

Caution: If you are creating a new Merchant Center account, don't request conversion to an advanced account. Our support team will convert your account to an advanced account when you request to be enabled as a UCP checkout service provider.

Note: If you already have an existing advanced Merchant Center account that you use for your existing Merchant Center integrations, you can reuse that same account and skip to step 4 to add your service account to your existing advanced account.

1. Register your business organization account:
   • Open Google Merchant Center.
   • Sign in with a Google Account that has administrative access for your business.
   • Enter your legal business name, country, and website URL.
2. Verify and claim your website:
   • In Merchant Center, navigate to your business information settings to verify and claim your primary website URL to confirm domain ownership. For step-by-step instructions, see the Merchant Center Help Center guide to verify and claim your store's website.
3. Record your Merchant Center service provider account ID ({PROVIDER_ID}):
   • Record this numeric ID ({PROVIDER_ID}). Use this ID as your platform's provider ID across all Merchant API operations and account linking URLs.
4. Grant your service account permissions in your Merchant Center service provider account:
   • Open your Merchant Center service provider account.
   • In the left navigation, go to Settings > Access and services.
   • Click Add person and enter your service account email address ({SERVICE_ACCOUNT_EMAIL}).
   • Assign the Admin role so the service account has permissions to manage service proposals and links under your service provider account.

Configure Google client library authentication (optional)

Because your backend communicates with Google server-to-server without interactive user login, we recommend authenticating your Merchant API operations using Google's official client libraries with your service account credentials and the scope https://www.googleapis.com/auth/content.

Google Client Libraries manage the entire token lifecycle automatically, including signed JWT assertions, token retrieval, caching, and seamless background token refreshes.

To install and configure the client library for your programming language (Python, Node.js, Java, Go, PHP, or .NET), see the Merchant API client libraries documentation.

Complete developer registration using the Merchant API

Developer registration is a mandatory, one-time setup process that links your Google Cloud project (where your service account resides) to your Merchant Center service provider account ID ({PROVIDER_ID}), authorizing API operations on behalf of your platform. You must complete developer registration programmatically using the Merchant API. To learn more, see the Developer registration guide.

Key considerations for service accounts completing developer registration:

• Authorization: Authorize the registerGcp API call as an admin of your Merchant Center service provider account, and the Google Cloud project which owns your service account. Ensure your service account is an administrator of your Merchant Center service provider account if you use it to make the call.
• Registration: Provide a valid human email address as the developer email. The developer email cannot be a service account.
• Post-Registration: After you successfully register your Google Cloud project to your service provider account, you gain access to the API developer role. Log into your service provider account in Merchant Center, navigate to Settings > Access and services and grant any additional developer contacts the API developer role. This ensures your organization receives all important API-related emails.