Google Shopping App/Google Merchant Centre - Items Expiring

[esmith1989]

Hi,

I'm having an issue where I'm using the Google Shopping App to hook up my inventory to Google Merchant Centre which, as far as I'm aware, should pull in the feed to GMC on a daily occurrence. 

However, I keep seeing 'expiring items' in the Merchant Centre which points towards the feed not being pulled in. The number of live items in GMC has dropped from 1400 to 250 in 2 weeks and there's nothing I can do to stop it. This has happened before and I was advised to try the below which I have tried but to no avail:

 - Edit each item in the store to 'refresh' the product list and encourage it to be pulled into GMC

 - Request a manual sync by Shopify (have contacted but no response, this worked last time but don't want to have to do this every time)

I need to get the expired items back and stop this from happening in future but not sure how???

[DuaneBrown]

We had a potential client reach out about this and it seems to be happening more in the last few weeks. Other then using another method to sync your Shopify store and Google Merchant Center. I don't think there is anything you can do until Google or Shopify figure out what is happening with the app. Hope you found this helpful, if so please click "like" below to let me know.

[esmith1989]

That's really disappointing as, at the rate that I'm losing items in GMC, there won't be any left by the time a solution is found and shopping ads therefore useless. This is also a client account and shopping ads is their main source of income.

I think I'll have to seek an alternative to the app in that case.

[EmmanuelFlossie]

The issue is how these apps are built. They are a push system, ie: Content API. 

Google never pulls data in this situation.

Due to the limitations and also attribute discrepancies (missing attribute) I have built my application to create a static data feed (text delimited)

This means Google pulls data every day. In this case products will never expire, as the products are collected every day.

Essentially, my system pulls data from Shopify, then Google pulls data from my servers. This happens on a daily basis.

[Josh_Uebergang]

Yup, @EmmanuelFlossie is spot on. Use a feed management solution that you can use to push data daily.

[MarekBW]

Hello,

problem could be on the side of Google. I would try to contact support as soon as possible, there can be many factors why is this happening to you. Wrong Feed, policy violation etc..

But if you are looking for clear setup of Google Merchant and Google Ads + automation of your ads/products, surely visit this plugin - https://www.bluewinston.com/features/product-search-shopping-ads-in-google-shopify-plugin/

[Amit_Roznak1]

@esmith1989 

Managing the Merchant Center on your own can be a very tedious task, and requires some technical skills.

You can solve this matter by using an app that gives you a comprehensive solution for the management of your Shopping campaigns, like AdScale.

It uses AI to automatically create and manage your Google Shopping ads, including creating a merchant and syncing it to your store products, implementing the pixel, etc...

You can learn more about how it works in this video:

[RDR]

8 weeks ago Shopify Plus admitted this was a problem with multiple stores, and have yet to fix the issue. The lack of communication and transparency is beyond maddening.  we had 295,350 active products and lost all but 90,700 as we watched the "expiring items" increase daily.  API calls repeatedly failing from Shopify and every method of attempted communication results in a " we have the tech team on it"  WHATEVER 
  "it" IS??? There is nothing wrong with the items.  Shopify knows there's an issue.  Now it is EIGHT weeks later.  How long cant his go on?

Shopify reply:

This issue is being looked at from the Dev Level already.
We are doing is a Forced Sync where all products are being reloaded over to Google’s side manually and we are looking if this would work temporarily, while our developers look into this further with Google's side.

I wouldn't offer you any stop gap answers, as this wouldn't resolve your issue. What I will do however is keep the line open for you on this ticket and you can let me know if the resync is working and if it is, I'll run it on a regular basis till the issue can be resolved.

We really appreciate your patience on this issue.

Kind Regards,

Hans | Shopify Technical Merchant Support

So far...no word as to when or if they did the force synch....

[musicwharf123]

Hi we have the same issue

[EmmanuelFlossie]

1) Make an edit to a product, this forces the product to be pushed.

Or 2) Use a data feed solution that does not use Content API such as my application that creates a text delimited file. This means Google pulls data every day, extending the product expiry day by 30 days.

Or 3) Contact the app support team to report the issue.

[Plumd]

Good Evening,

I seem to be having issues with product information not updating through the API.   All my products have expired although I know many have been updated in the past 30 days.  

[EmmanuelFlossie]

I recommend you contact the app support team. They will help you resolve this issue.