Products API calls

The Products API allows for a great deal of flexibility and control over more than 60 product attributes. Together these are called the product resource. There are a number of fields that are mandatory, and must be included in order to be approved for display on Google Shopping. There are a number of optional fields that can become mandatory based on varying conditions such as a merchant's location, type of product, use of product variants and product bundles, etc. For more details on the 60+ optional parameters that can be configured for products, refer to the Product Data Specifications.

The Products API lets you insert, get, update and delete one product at a time as well as list all products in the merchant center database.

The productstatuses API can be used to check on the approval or disapproval status of a specific product for a destination. Refer to the Product Statuses API guide for more details on which products may have data quality issues and what those issues may be.

In our API examples, we use three products: two Google t-shirts and a Google cap. We use a minimal set of product data shown in the table below to make Products API calls to insert, get, update, list, and delete individual products and batches of products.

Key Point: We recommend that Shipping and Tax information be configured at the account level rather than at a product level.

id	online:en:US:1111111111	online:en:US:2222222222	online:en:US:3333333333
offerId	1111111111	2222222222	3333333333
title	The Black Google Tee	Google Tee Green	Google Twill Cap
description	The Black Google Tee	100% cotton Google t-shirt	Classic Google cap
item group ID	google_tee	google_tee
link	http://my.site.com/blacktee	http://my.site.com/greentee	http://my.site.com/blackhat
condition	New	New	New
price	21.99 USD	21.99 USD	10.99 USD
availability	In Stock	In Stock	In Stock
imageLink	https://shop.example.com/store/20160512512/assets/items/images/GGOEGXXX1100.jpg	https://shop.example.com/store/20160512512/assets/items/images/GGOEGXXX0906.jpg	https://shop.example.com/store/20160512512/assets/items/images/GGOEGHPB071610.jpg
gtin	9504000059422	9504000059446	9504000059452
mpn	00638NIC	00638ANG	00638ABC
brand	Google	Google	Google
Google product category	Apparel & Accessories > Clothing	Apparel & Accessories > Clothing	Apparel & Accessories > Clothing Accessories > Hats
color	black	green	black
size	L	M	M
age_group	adult	adult	adult
gender	male	male	unisex
included_destination	Shopping Actions, Shopping Ads	Shopping Actions, Shopping Ads	Shopping Actions

Products.Insert

To insert a single product, use the following request URL, specifying your merchant ID and a sample JSON body. An insert creates the new product. If values exist for the attributes channel, contentLanguage, offerId, and targetCountry for a given product, this method updates that entry and replaces all data from previous API calls for the given product.

The example shown inserts a new "Black Google Tee" to the products available.

POST https://shoppingcontent.googleapis.com/content/v2.1/{merchantId}/products

Sample request body call for products.insert:

{
 "kind": "content#product",
 "offerId": "1111111111",
 "title": "Google Tee Black",
 "description": "The Black Google Tee is available in unisex sizing.",
 "link": "http://my.site.com/blacktee/",
 "imageLink": "https://shop.example.com/.../images/GGOEGXXX1100.jpg",
 "contentLanguage": "en",
 "targetCountry": "US",
 "channel": "online",
 "ageGroup": "adult",
 "availability": "in stock",
 "availabilityDate": "2019-01-25T13:00:00-08:00",
 "brand": "Google",
 "color": "black",
 "condition": "new",
 "gender": "male",
 "googleProductCategory": "1604",
 "gtin": "608802531656",
 "itemGroupId": "google_tee",
 "mpn": "608802531656",
 "price": {
  "value": "21.99",
  "currency": "USD"
 },
 "sizes": [
  "Large"
 ]
}

A product can also have custom attributes set within the JSON body. For example, we can set a purchase_quantity_limit for a single product in order to limit the number of items a customer can order:

"customAttributes": [
 {
   "name": "purchase_quantity_limit",
   "type": "int",
   "value": "4"
 }
]

Note that the purchase_quantity_limit custom attribute sets a purchase limit per customer order to the product definition and is also supported by feeds. The attribute is currently in beta until fully supported by the API. Any additional custom attribute can be added by a merchant but does not result in any specific processing by the APIs.

A successful call returns an HTTP 200 code and a response body containing the inserted product resource with only id, offerId, contentLanguage, targetCountry, and channel populated:

{
 "kind": "content#product",
 "id": "online:en:US:1111111111",
 "offerId": "1111111111",
 "contentLanguage": "en",
 "targetCountry": "US",
 "channel": "online"
}

Products.Get

To get information on a specific product in the Merchant Center database, use products.get. It can take a few minutes for a newly inserted product to be available through this call.

Use the following HTTP request URL and parameters, your merchant ID, and the product ID (REST ID format) for the product that you want to get:

GET https://shoppingcontent.googleapis.com/content/v2.1/{merchantId}/products/{productId}

A successful call returns an HTTP 200 and the "product resource" in the response body. Here is sample product data retrieved from a product with ID online:en:US:1111111111:

{
 "kind": "content#product",
 "id": "online:en:US:1111111111",
 "offerId": "1111111111",
 "source": "api",
 "title": "Google Tee Black",
 "description": "The Black Google Tee is available in unisex sizing.",
 "link": "http://my.site.com/blacktee/",
 "imageLink": "https://shop.example.com/.../images/GGOEGXXX1100.jpg",
 "contentLanguage": "en",
 "targetCountry": "US",
 "channel": "online",
 "ageGroup": "adult",
 "availability": "in stock",
 "availabilityDate": "2019-01-25T13:00:00-08:00",
 "brand": "Google",
 "color": "black",
 "condition": "new",
 "gender": "male",
 "googleProductCategory": "1604",
 "gtin": "608802531656",
 "itemGroupId": "google_tee",
 "mpn": "608802531656",
 "price": {
  "value": "21.99",
  "currency": "USD"
 },
 "sizes": [
  "Large"
 ]
}

Products.Update

To update a single product, use the following request URL with the PATCH method, specifying your merchant ID, product ID, and a JSON body containing the data you would like to update for the product. Unlike products.insert, that requires all applicable fields to be provided, products.update only requires you to specify the fields you would like to change.

Note: Updating a product behaves similar to products.insert, in that it takes time for that change to be processed (usually in the order of seconds). If products.update succeeds without errors, the update is successful. Following calls to products.get may return the previous value until the update has been processed.

Warning: Changes made with product.update do not persist if the product with the same product ID is resubmitted via the Primary feed, Supplemental feed or API. If you want a value to persist after resubmission, make sure your updated value is included in the feed or via the products.insert API call.

To add or modify an attribute, specify the field with the new value in the JSON body. The example shown will update the title and description of an existing "Black Google Tee" with the product data provided in the request body, leaving all other fields untouched.

PATCH https://shoppingcontent.googleapis.com/content/v2.1/{merchantId}/products/{productId}

Sample request body call for products.update:

{
 "title": "Google Tee Black Limited Edition",
 "description": "The Limited Edition Tee is available in unisex sizing and features a retail fit."
}

Only top-level fields can be updated via a products.update request. If you want to update nested fields you must provide the entire top-level object.

The example shown will update the top-level salePrice object, including the nested fields of an existing product, with the product data provided in the request body, leaving all other fields untouched.

PATCH https://shoppingcontent.googleapis.com/content/v2.1/{merchantId}/products/{productId}

{
 "salePrice": {
  "value": "17.99",
  "currency": "USD"
 }
}

To select certain fields to update without making changes to the others included in the body of the request, you can specify an updateMask. This query string parameter should be a comma-separated list of fields you wish to modify. An updateMask is useful when you want to assert that only the named fields will be updated. Not specifying an updateMask is the equivalent of marking all fields in the request to be updated as shown in the example above.

The example shown will update only the description and availability of an existing "Black Google Tee" with the respective product data provided in the request body, leaving all other fields including the title untouched.

PATCH https://shoppingcontent.googleapis.com/content/v2.1/{merchantId}/products/{productId}?updateMask=description,availability

Sample request body call for products.update:

{
 "title": "Google Tee Black",
 "description": "This Limited Edition is out of print.",
 "availability": "out of stock"
}

If a field is provided in the updateMask list but not in the body of the request, that field will be deleted from the Product resource, if it exists.

The example shown will use updateMask to remove the value for the field salePrice.

PATCH https://shoppingcontent.googleapis.com/content/v2.1/{merchantId}/products/{productId}?updateMask=salePrice

The sample request body should not include the salePrice field in order to delete it. You may also provide no body or an empty body. Other fields will remain untouched provided they do not appear in the updateMask.

Warning: When using updateMask, be careful to provide the correct value for all fields listed in the updateMask. If you do not include the value in the body of the request, it will be the equivalent of deleting the field.

To use updateMask within a products.custombatch request, the updateMask should be specified in the body of the request.

The example shown will update the price and availability of an existing "Black Google Tee" using products.custombatch with the product data provided in the batch entry, leaving all other fields including title and description untouched.

POST https://shoppingcontent.googleapis.com/content/v2.1/products/batch

{
  "entries": [{
    "batchId": 1,
    "merchantId": "MERCHANT_ID",
    "productId": "online:en:US:1111111111",
    "method": "update",
    "product": {
      "title": "Google Tee Black",
      "description": "The Black Google Tee is available in unisex sizing.",
      "availability": "in stock",
      "price": {
        "value": "19.99",
        "currency": "USD"
      }
    },
    "updateMask": "availability,price"
  }]
}

Products.Delete

To delete a single product, use products.delete with the sample HTTP request URL, your merchant ID, and the product ID (in REST ID format such as online:en:US:1111111111) for the product that you want to delete:

DELETE https://shoppingcontent.googleapis.com/content/v2.1/{merchantId}/products/{productId}

A successful response returns an HTTP Status 204 with no response body.

Products.List

products.list lists all products that a merchant has in the merchant center database. Use the following request URL:

GET https://shoppingcontent.googleapis.com/content/v2.1/{merchantId}/products

A successful call returns an HTTP 200 and JSON data for products in the "resources" key.

The following three example products are returned:

{
 "kind": "content#productsListResponse",
 "resources": [
  {
   "kind": "content#product",
   "id": "online:en:US:1111111111",
   "offerId": "1111111111",
   "source": "api",
   "title": "Google Tee Black",
   "description": "The Black Google Tee is available in unisex sizing.",
   "link": "http://my.site.com/blacktee/",
   "imageLink": "https://shop.example.com/.../images/GGOEGXXX1100.jpg",
   "contentLanguage": "en",
   "targetCountry": "US",
   "channel": "online",
   "ageGroup": "adult",
   "availability": "in stock",
   "availabilityDate": "2019-01-25T13:00:00-08:00",
   "brand": "Google",
   "color": "black",
   "condition": "new",
   "gender": "male",
   "googleProductCategory": "1604",
   "gtin": "608802531656",
   "itemGroupId": "google_tee",
   "mpn": "608802531656",
   "price": {
    "value": "21.99",
    "currency": "USD"
   },
   "sizes": [
    "Large"
   ]
  },
  {
   "kind": "content#product",
   "id": "online:en:US:2222222222",
   "offerId": "2222222222",
   "source": "api",
   "title": "Google Tee Green",
   "description": "100% cotton jersey fabric sets this Google t-shirt above the crowd.
   Features the google logo across the chest. Unisex sizing.",
   "link": "http://my.site.com/greentee/",
   "imageLink": "https://shop.example.com/.../images/GGOEGXXX0906.jpg",
   "contentLanguage": "en",
   "targetCountry": "US",
   "channel": "online",
   "ageGroup": "adult",
   "availability": "in stock",
   "availabilityDate": "2019-01-25T13:00:00-08:00",
   "brand": "Google",
   "color": "green",
   "condition": "new",
   "gender": "male",
   "googleProductCategory": "1604",
   "gtin": "608802531649",
   "itemGroupId": "google_tee",
   "mpn": "608802531649",
   "price": {
    "value": "21.99",
    "currency": "USD"
   },
   "sizes": [
    "Medium"
   ]
  },
  {
   "kind": "content#product",
   "id": "online:en:US:3333333333",
   "offerId": "3333333333",
   "source": "api",
   "title": "Google Twill Cap",
   "description": "Classic urban styling distinguishes this Google cap.
   Retains its shape, even when not being worn.",
   "link": "http://my.site.com/blackhat/",
   "imageLink": "https://shop.example.com/.../images/GGOEGHPB071610.jpg",
   "contentLanguage": "en",
   "targetCountry": "US",
   "channel": "online",
   "ageGroup": "adult",
   "availability": "in stock",
   "availabilityDate": "2019-01-07T13:00:00-08:00",
   "brand": "Google",
   "color": "black",
   "condition": "new",
   "gender": "male",
   "googleProductCategory": "173",
   "gtin": "689355417246",
   "mpn": "689355417246",
   "price": {
    "value": "10.99",
    "currency": "USD"
   },
   "sizes": [
    "Medium"
   ]
  }
 ]
}