A **Google business group** is like a shared folder for your locations. A business group provides a safe way to share management of your locations with multiple users. For more information, see [About business groups](https://support.google.com/business/answer/6085326). Before you upload your local inventory, specify the business group that your Merchant Center account will be responsible for. You can get the list of eligible business groups from the Business Profile using the Merchant API, but to get access you first need to link your account to a Business Profile. ### Request access to a Business Profile To get access to a Business Profile, use the `gbpAccounts.LinkGbpAccount` method: POST https://merchantapi.googleapis.com/accounts/v1/accounts/{ACCOUNT_ID}/gbpAccounts:linkGbpAccount { "gbpEmail": "admin@example.com", } Replace the following: - `ACCOUNT_ID`: the unique identifier of your Merchant Center account - `GBP_EMAIL`: the email of the administrator for the Business Profile Upon calling this method, the service sends an email to the specified administrator, asking to either accept or decline the access request. If the administrator does not respond within 7 days, the request expires automatically. ## List the available business groups Once the administrator has approved the request, you can check available business groups using the `gbpAccounts.List` method. Here's a sample request and successful response: GET https://merchantapi.googleapis.com/accounts/v1/accounts/{ACCOUNT_ID}/gbpAccounts Response: 200 OK { "gbpAccounts": [ { "name": "accounts/{ACCOUNT_ID}/gbpAccounts/12345", "gbpAccountId": 12345, "type": USER, "gbpAccountName": "admin@example.com", "listingCount": 15 }, { "name": "accounts/{ACCOUNT_ID}/gbpAccounts/67890", "gbpAccountId": 67890, "type": BUSINESS_ACCOUNT, "gbpAccountName": "Google My Business Account", "listingCount": 23 } ], "nextPageToken": 50 } You can utilize this code sample to retrieve all the eligible business groups: ### Java import com.google.api.gax.core.FixedCredentialsProvider; import com.google.auth.oauth2.GoogleCredentials; import com.google.shopping.merchant.accounts.v1.AccountName; import com.google.shopping.merchant.accounts.v1.GbpAccount; import com.google.shopping.merchant.accounts.v1.GbpAccountsServiceClient; import com.google.shopping.merchant.accounts.v1.GbpAccountsServiceClient.ListGbpAccountsPagedResponse; import com.google.shopping.merchant.accounts.v1.GbpAccountsServiceSettings; import com.google.shopping.merchant.accounts.v1.ListGbpAccountsRequest; import shopping.merchant.samples.utils.Authenticator; import shopping.merchant.samples.utils.Config; /** * This class demonstrates how to get the list of GBP accounts for a given Merchant Center account */ public class ListGbpAccountsSample { public static void listGbpAccounts(Config config) throws Exception { // Obtains OAuth token based on the user's configuration. GoogleCredentials credential = new Authenticator().authenticate(); // Creates service settings using the credentials retrieved above. GbpAccountsServiceSettings gbpAccountsServiceSettings = GbpAccountsServiceSettings.newBuilder() .setCredentialsProvider(FixedCredentialsProvider.create(credential)) .build(); String accountId = config.getAccountId().toString(); // Creates parent to identify the omnichannelSetting from which to list all Lfp Providers. String parent = AccountName.newBuilder().setAccount(accountId).build().toString(); // Calls the API and catches and prints any network failures/errors. try (GbpAccountsServiceClient gbpAccountsServiceClient = GbpAccountsServiceClient.create(gbpAccountsServiceSettings)) { ListGbpAccountsRequest request = ListGbpAccountsRequest.newBuilder().setParent(parent).build(); System.out.println("Sending list GBP accounts request:"); ListGbpAccountsPagedResponse response = gbpAccountsServiceClient.listGbpAccounts(request); int count = 0; // Iterates over all the entries in the response. for (GbpAccount gbpAccount : response.iterateAll()) { System.out.println(gbpAccount); count++; } System.out.println(String.format("The following count of elements were returned: %d", count)); } catch (Exception e) { System.out.println("An error has occured: "); System.out.println(e); } } public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception { Config config = Config.load(); listGbpAccounts(config); } } ### PHP require_once __DIR__ . '/../../../../vendor/autoload.php'; require_once __DIR__ . '/../../../Authentication/Authentication.php'; require_once __DIR__ . '/../../../Authentication/Config.php'; use Google\ApiCore\ApiException; use Google\Shopping\Merchant\Accounts\V1\Client\GbpAccountsServiceClient; use Google\Shopping\Merchant\Accounts\V1\GbpAccount; use Google\Shopping\Merchant\Accounts\V1\ListGbpAccountsRequest; /** * This class demonstrates how to get the list of GBP accounts for a given * Merchant Center account. */ class ListGbpAccountsSample { /** * A helper function to create the parent string. * * @param string $accountId The account ID. * * @return string The parent has the format: `accounts/{account_id}` */ private static function getParent(string $accountId): string { return sprintf('accounts/%s', $accountId); } /** * Retrieves the list of GBP accounts for a given Merchant Center account. * * @param array $config The configuration data for authentication and account ID. * * @return void */ public static function listGbpAccounts(array $config): void { // Gets the OAuth credentials to make the request. $credentials = Authentication::useServiceAccountOrTokenFile(); // Creates options config containing credentials for the client to use. $options = ['credentials' => $credentials]; // Creates a client. $gbpAccountsServiceClient = new GbpAccountsServiceClient($options); // Creates the parent account name to identify the merchant. $parent = self::getParent($config['accountId']); // Creates the request to list GBP accounts. $request = new ListGbpAccountsRequest([ 'parent' => $parent ]); // Calls the API and catches and prints any network failures/errors. try { printf("Sending list GBP accounts request:%s", PHP_EOL); $response = $gbpAccountsServiceClient->listGbpAccounts($request); $count = 0; // Iterates over all the GBP accounts in the response and prints them. foreach ($response->iterateAllElements() as $gbpAccount) { /** @var GbpAccount $gbpAccount */ print_r($gbpAccount->serializeToJsonString()); $count++; } printf( "The following count of elements were returned: %d%s", $count, PHP_EOL ); } catch (ApiException $e) { printf("An error has occurred: %s%s", $e->getMessage(), PHP_EOL); } } /** * Helper to execute the sample. * * @return void */ public function callSample(): void { $config = Config::generateConfig(); self::listGbpAccounts($config); } } // Runs the script. $sample = new ListGbpAccountsSample(); $sample->callSample(); ### Python from examples.authentication import configuration from examples.authentication import generate_user_credentials from google.shopping.merchant_accounts_v1 import GbpAccountsServiceClient from google.shopping.merchant_accounts_v1 import ListGbpAccountsRequest # Gets the merchant account ID from the configuration file. _ACCOUNT = configuration.Configuration().read_merchant_info() # Creates the parent resource name string. _PARENT = f"accounts/{_ACCOUNT}" def list_gbp_accounts() -> None: """Lists the Google Business Profile accounts for a given Merchant Center account.""" # Gets OAuth Credentials. credentials = generate_user_credentials.main() # Creates a client. client = GbpAccountsServiceClient(credentials=credentials) # Creates the request. request = ListGbpAccountsRequest(parent=_PARENT) # Makes the request and catches and prints any error messages. try: print("Sending list GBP accounts request:") # Makes the request and retrieves the list of GBP accounts. response = client.list_gbp_accounts(request=request) count = 0 # Iterates over all the GBP accounts in the response and prints them. for gbp_account in response: print(gbp_account) count += 1 print(f"The following count of elements were returned: {count}") except RuntimeError as e: print("An error has occured: ") print(e) if __name__ == "__main__": list_gbp_accounts() ## Specify the business group for the Merchant Center account list of available business groups, you can associate the business group with your Merchant Center account. For example, if you wanted to choose the business group with the GBP account ID `12345` (returned from the previous step), you can use `AccountServices.proposeAccountService`: POST https://merchantapi.googleapis.com/accounts/v1/accounts/{ACCOUNT_ID}/services:propose { provider: "providers/GOOGLE_BUSINESS_PROFILE", account_service: { external_account_id: "12345", local_listing_management {} } } Note that the `provider` field must be `providers/GOOGLE_BUSINESS_PROFILE`. You must set an empty `LocalListingManagement` field in the request. ## Submit product and inventory data Now that you have associated your Merchant Center account with a business group, you can upload your product and local inventory data. For more information, see - [LFP onboarding guide](https://developers.google.com/merchant/storebuilder/local/sections/overview_and_requirements/overview) - [Local Inventory API](https://developers.google.com/merchant/api/reference/rest/inventories_v1/accounts.products.localInventories)