Product IDs

  • The Merchant API is the new version of the Content API for Shopping and represents the future of product data integration with Google.

  • The beta version of the Merchant API is now available for developers to explore and help shape its future development.

  • Developers can learn more about the benefits and features of the Merchant API, including how it can enhance integrations, in the official announcement blog post.

  • Products in the Merchant API are identified using various IDs, such as offerId, REST ID, productId, and external_seller_id, each with specific characteristics and usage contexts.

  • A comprehensive table provides detailed explanations and examples of different product ID attributes, outlining their purpose and format.

Here are the different kinds of product IDs in the Content API for Shopping:

Offer ID
An offerId is a string assigned to a product by a merchant. This ID represents an individual product.
offerId is unique to the set of offers in the Merchant Center database, and is usually a numeric sequential number.
offerId can be an internal SKU number that a merchant assigns to the product.
REST ID
A REST ID is the unique identifier for a product assigned by Google.
REST ID is the productId for REST API calls.

REST IDs are aggregates with the format online:en:label:1111111111. The REST ID consists of the following 4 parts, separated by colons:

  1. Channel ("online" or "local")
  2. Content Language (using the 2-letter designation, for example en or fr)
  3. Feed label (might be the two-letter code for the feed's target country, for example US or FR)
  4. Offer ID

You put this together as channel:contentLanguage:feedLabel:offerId, for example, online:en:US:1111111111.

External Seller ID (Marketplaces)

Marketplaces must assign an external_seller_id to offers uploaded to a multi-seller account. This field represents an individual seller.

external_seller_id values are case-sensitive, and must meet the following criteria:

  • 1-50 characters in length
  • Only alphanumeric ASCII characters, and underscore (_), hyphen (-), period (.), and tilde (~)

This isn't the same as the internal seller_id field.

The following table summarizes some of the IDs that can be associated with a product:

Attribute Description Example Notes
offerId An ID assigned to a product by a merchant. 1111111111 String data type, unique identifier for a product's offer.
REST ID An ID assigned to a product by Google. In the format channel:contentLanguage:feedLabel:offerId. online:en:label:1111111111 Full ID including offerId.
productId Used to refer to the REST ID in API calls. online:en:label:1111111111 This is the REST ID of a product.
id Same value as REST ID and productId. online:en:label:1111111111 Used inside JSON body of a product to refer to its productId.
external_seller_id A seller ID chosen by the Marketplace. example-Seller1 Required for multi-seller accounts. Must be 1-50 characters. Case-sensitive. Digits, and special characters _, -, ., and ~ are accepted.
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