Merchants can use the
[`products`](https://developers.google.com/shopping-content/reference/rest/v2.1/products)
resource to create an online store catalog, that is a list of
products and offers that are available on Google Shopping. Merchants can use the
`products` resource once they have created their merchant center account, and are
ready to upload an initial set of products through the API.

Merchants are responsible for complying with the [Shopping
ads](https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/6149970) and [free
listings](https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/9261529) policies. Google
Shopping reserves the right to enforce these policies and respond appropriately
if we find content or behavior that violates these policies.

The `products` resource uploads product information to the **Shopping Merchant
Center** database. It also provides a number of methods that let you
access, update or delete product information one at a time, or many at a time
in batch mode.

Although merchants have the ability to load products using a file called a
**Primary Feed**, there are several advantages to creating, updating, and
deleting products using the Content API, including faster response time and
the ability to update multiple products in real time, without the need to
manage multiple supplemental feeds. It may take up to several hours
for product changes made by API calls to show in the Shopping Merchant Center
database.

Google can help maintain certain attributes of your products automatically. See
[Enable automatic improvements](https://developers.google.com/shopping-content/guides/automatic-improvements)
for more details.

Here's a diagram of how you can manage products:

![](https://developers.google.com/static/shopping-content/images/products-overview.svg)

The term "product" refers to the physical unit that is to be displayed on a
merchant's Product Detail Page for listing in an online location like Google
Shopping.

![](https://developers.google.com/static/shopping-content/images/googlet.png)