Verify your inventory

  • The Merchant API is the new version of the Content API for Shopping and represents the future of the platform.

  • Google performs inventory verification to ensure the accuracy of provided product and inventory information.

  • Before requesting inventory verification, ensure all other onboarding steps are completed and statuses are 'active'.

  • Users should add inventory verification contacts early in the process to ensure timely verification.

  • After successful inventory verification, the 'status' field will change to 'active', indicating completion of the LIA onboarding process.

Once you've set up your Merchant Center account for LIA and added appropriate product and inventory data, Google checks the accuracy of the provided product and inventory information through the inventory verification process. You should go ahead and set up the inventory verification contacts when you begin the onboarding process so they'll be verified once you're ready to request inventory verification, which you will do after finishing everything else in this guide.

Add inventory verification contacts

To add contact information for the inventory verification process, use the liasettings.setinventoryverificationcontact method:

POST https://shoppingcontent.googleapis.com/content/v2.1/12345/liasettings/67890/setinventoryverificationcontact?contactEmail=invcheck@example.com&contactName=Inventory%20Manager&country=US&language=en

Just as with the About and ODO page URLs, you can check whether the contact has been verified by calling the liasettings.get method:

GET https://shoppingcontent.googleapis.com/content/v2.1/12345/liasettings/67890

Response:
200 OK
{
  "kind": "content#liaSettings",
  "accountId" : 67890,
  "countrySettings" : [{
    "country" : "US",
    "inventory" : {
      "inventoryVerificationContactName" : "Inventory Manager",
      "inventoryVerificationContactEmail" : "invcheck@example.com",
      "inventoryVerificationContactStatus" : "pending"
    }
  }]
}

Request inventory verification

Once all the status fields other than countrySettings[].inventory.status are listed as active, you're ready to request the initial inventory verification check. To do this, call the liasettings.requestinventoryverification method:

POST https://shoppingcontent.googleapis.com/content/v2.1/12345/liasettings/67890/requestinventoryverification/US

You can check the status of the verification process by retrieving the LIA settings for the account:

GET https://shoppingcontent.googleapis.com/content/v2.1/12345/liasettings/67890

Response:
200 OK
{
  "kind": "content#liaSettings",
  "accountId" : 67890,
  "countrySettings" : [{
    "country" : "US",
    "inventory": {
      "inventoryVerificationContactName" : "Inventory Manager",
      "inventoryVerificationContactEmail" : "invcheck@example.com",
      "inventoryVerificationContactStatus" : "active",
      "status" : "pending"
    }
  }]
}

Once the value of the status field changes to active, congratulations, you've finished the LIA onboarding process!