My own brand products are ineligible for enhanced listings because of GTIN. Help...

[OliviaMichaelCo]

According to Google, I do not need to provide a GTIN.

Don't submit a GTIN for a product that doesn't have one. If you're the only seller of a product or if your product is a shop brand, it generally won't have a GTIN, so you don't need to submit one.

I have a small online candle business. It's my own shop selling my own branded candles. According to the help text on Google I don't need to provide a GTIN. Agreed?

However, when I submit the feed to Google I get the following errors:

In Shopify Google app

• Ineligible for enhanced listings.

In Google Merchant Centre (under enhanced free listings)

• Disapproved or invalid

I had a brand set up in my feed (because how else do I get the name of my business to Google?) and on Shopify because I use it on the website. I don't have a GTIN because I don't need one and I don't have an MPN because I'm not manufacturing parts.

When I select to edit Google fields in the Shopify app, I have selected 'this is a custom product' in the check box.

Nothing is working. Please, could someone help me? I've tried to reach out to Google and Shopify last week but still no reply from either. As a small business owner trying to compete in a competitive market this is really stressful.

Alternatively, if someone can recommend another site that integrates better than Shopify does, please let me know and I'll move over. I'm brand new so happy to move to an easier solution if there is one out there.

Thanks,

Rosalind.

[EmmanuelFlossie]

If you don't have barcodes, don't submit brand or mpn values, and set identifier exists to no.

If you have enabled custom products in the free app, then check how the data looks in Google Merchant Center > Products > all products > click on your product > scroll to the bottom and view final attributes.

You should not see brand, mpn or gtin, and you should see identifier exists = no

If that is not the case you can modify the data using feed rules: https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/7450276?hl=en

If you want people to know your brand, add the brand name in your title.

More info: https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/6324415

[OliviaMichaelCo]

Hey thanks for the reply.

This seems like a dreadful solution. Not your fault, of course, but the fault of Google.

I don't want each of my products to have my Brand name (which is quite long) before the name of the product, it would look stupid on the website. People know it's an "Olivia Michael Candle Co. Old Fashioned Candle" because they're on my site already and I only sell my products.

Is there any way to separate this in Google with post modification, e.g., remove brand (I use this on my site) when it gets there, and edit the title by adding the brand name there?

Why is Google like this? So weird. 

[OliviaMichaelCo]

Okay, as a test I tried to remove the brand/title/vendor but I got an error. 

[EmmanuelFlossie]

Please note, the issue that you have is not from Google, its how the free Shopify app is built. Because its free, it does not have any of the good features a paid app has, which has more control.

In your case.

To remove the brand value, ie vendor, you need to do this in Google Merchant Center using feed rules.

You don't need to add the brand name to your titles in Shopify, you can do this using feed rules in Google Merchant Center.

You can click on the previous link to learn more.

[OliviaMichaelCo]

Thank you. I will give this a good read and see if I can figure it out.

It seems that I need one rule to remove the vendor and set it to n/a (blank) and then add the vendor to the title by using a rule which modifies the title concatenating the vendor and title.

I should be able to figure this out. I’ll have a play around with it and report back. Thanks again.

One final thing, when you say this is because of the ‘free Shopify app’, I’m assuming you mean the free google app in Shopify, right?

[OliviaMichaelCo]

Hey @EmmanuelFlossie 

So I followed your advice and I set up some feed rules.

1. Clear the brand
2. Set identifier exists to 'No'
3. Set title to Content.title + " | " + Content.brand

This has resulted in the final attributes looking correct. The status is still "Disapproved or invalid", would this be because it takes some time to work it all out or have I missed something obvious here? 

I've attached below a before and after of the product data feed so you can see my changes have been applied.

 

[EmmanuelFlossie]

A product that is disapproved or invalid, is not just about product identifiers but can be about a lot of things from Google policies, to requirements.

I recommend reading the requirements: https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/7052112?hl=en

And policies: 

https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/6363310/follow-the-merchant-center-guidelines

https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/7052112

https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/4752265

[OliviaMichaelCo]

Thanks, but I've literally read these over and over and there's no clear answer on why these are still not approved.

Google is so unhelpful here. I wish they would just say, "not approved because of x, y, and z" rather than just giving you a status.

I'll try get someone on the phone and see if they can tell me what is up. Thanks for your help 🙂

[EmmanuelFlossie]

Sometimes Google can give you info if it's not a serious violation. But if its a serious violation, they will not disclose info.

[OliviaMichaelCo · Accepted solution]

Thanks @EmmanuelFlossie 

I have fixed it. I don't know how, but it's now working. I did a number of things so if anyone else is stuck or looking, try one of these.

In Shopify: Sales channels > Google > Manage availability

• Set custom product = False (I don't know why, but this worked)

In Google Merchant Centre: Products > Feeds > select feed name > Feed rules > add rules

• For the brand attribute, under modifications, clear the brand
• For the identifier exists attribute, if gtin has no value, set to 'No'
• For the title attribute, set to Content API.title + ' | ' + Content API.brand

In Google Merchant Centre: Tools > Automatic improvements

• Under item updates, set to specify my own settings and disable automatic item updates
• Under image improvements, set to specify my own settings and disable automatic item updates

I don't really know which of these helped, but this combination has meant that my products with no GTIN or MPN now show in enhanced free listings.