Google Shopping information not updating through Shopify Product Import

[BMOLLOY]

Hey

I have added all my Google Shopping Product Categories and a few other Google Shopping information using the product Export/Import, but none of the added fields have altered. 

Fields I am trying to populate

-"Google Shopping / Google Product Category"  these were from the Suggest Google Categories e.g. Product > Product type

-Google Shopping / Condition: "NEW"

-Google Shopping / Custom Product: "FALSE"

There were no errors during the import, it was a CSV.

[kishorahire]

Same issue with me as well.. any idea why? 

[jdalton]

This is also happening with me.  I'm trying to update the same fields that are in the original post, but not seeing them populated after the import, or at least they don't appear to be.

And similarly, the CSV import works well with no errors, and the follow-up email confirms that all the products were updated successfully. But when trying to do a "Bulk Edit" of the products through the Shopify UI, none of the three fields appear as populated, nor when trying to view/edit the fields through the Google Sales Channel product editor, which displays that modal with all the Google fields.  BUT, when doing another product export, the fields do appear populated, so I'm not sure if they are valid or not.

Any tips about why this isn't working, or if it actually is but just isn't showing? To be specific, I'm using the product category ID, not the path format, and for the other two fields I am using a lowercase "yes" or "no" string.

I'll keep an eye on the Google Merchant Center product details to see if the categories start showing up, and update here if they do.

Thanks!

Joe

[eGarderoben]

Same for me!

Anyone who has found a solution yet?

[boxertrot]

+1

Still waiting on solution or response from shopify?!?

[Bikes-Angel]

similarly, when exporting products, the google information is not exporting.  I found the shopify bulk editor quite quirky and wanted to just do it quicker and easier in excel but what I've already gotten in there that I figured I'd just copy paste down the line (since they're all same products just different designs) is not populated in the export.

Plus, if an item is custom YES why are they asking all these questions that have nothing to do with a custom product.  and for age, what there's no products that are good for everyone?  why do I have to choose  either a child or adult, my products are used by everyone  :0(

[George_C]

It seems as if the Google Shopping columns in the CSV are unrelated to the same fields as seen in the “Google fields” pop-up window found in the “More options” menu on a product page’s admin. And those are only found if you’ve installed the Google Shopping app. 

The bizarre thing is that I believe the Google Shopping app was developed by Shopify, yet it doesn’t use Shopify’s own CSV columns to allow one to edit the same fields the app uses. And the Google Shopping feed which is sent to Google Merchant center is populated by the fields in the Google app, not in the CSV. 

Shopify needs to update their Google Shopping app to pull from the CSV. Their help docs even plainly state that the Google Shopping columns in the CSV are there only so an app might be able to use them. Well, Shopify’s Google Shopping app seems like a good one to start with. Mind-boggling. 

There are other apps which will allow you to import/export CSV files to edit the proper Google Shopping fields, but I’ve not tried any yet. 

[Bikes-Angel]

I contacted shopify support on this and their answer was,  the fields in the csv used to work but then google changed their channel so they no longer work... but look... here's an app you can use (for $79.00 a month if you need all the features)   A.... hello.... shopify  ... since google changed the channel  you need to change the csv export / import.   Furthermore  the  custom = true does not work to satisfy the  no need for gtin / mpn / brand.   The api  is lacking the product_identifyier NO   I contacted shopify on this and they duplicated all of the google fields in the google channel (you're calling it an app but it's just the channel in the admin I think)  every field is duplicated but although a drop down exists to try and fill in  there's no options in the drop down.   but hey  now when I want to tag my orders  with things like printed / invoiced etc (my custom tags for orders) I get the google product numbers and anything else I've typed into shopify and not my tags.  I've really had it at this point.

Google merchant support says:
Investigation: I understand that you are unable to make the changes in the feed as its an API feed so you need to contact the shopify support and ask them to update the feed with the required details.
Information: If your product doesn’t have assigned product identifiers that meet the requirements below, then submit identifier_exists with a value of no or false.  

So what do you think shopify will further  mess up in my store if I ask for this?  I mean I know I'm not the only one with this problem and I would've assumed this should've been taken care across the board.  I am NOT spending $79.00 a month to use an app.

[eGarderoben]

I have also been in contact with Shopify support via chat and email but it is frustrating to see how they are dealing with this issue.

The root cause of GSI not being updated via csv import is, the file records the tags for each VARIANT while when you edit a product directly, it belongs to the main PRODUCT. Since you can see for example a single color or size field when editing a product directly but in csv they belong to each variation. That seems to be the CHANGE they are talking about (I guess).

Especially after Covid when Google made the shopping feed free for most of the regions, this has become a critical parameter for us to sell our products. In other words, Shopify does not come as advertised by not supporting the most essential features like this. It was supposed to support this feature but it has been a ridiculously long time and they are still sleeping on it. I don't know how they prioritise changes in the map for live view, mobile app's widgets or other stupid changes over something crucial like this. I would rather have an ugly back end which works than a nice interface which I have to buy 40 apps to do my job!

If anyone knows how to make a petition or collaborate in sending a collective request upon this matter please let us know.

[Stouty212]

I am having exactly the same problem, the columns are there in the import sheet, why can't Shopify sync these with Google? Seems to me like a simple fix. I would love to sign a petition.

[Bikes-Angel]

@eGarderoben OMG I so agree that stupid turning world that I guess they think is so cool oh wow you can make a 3d spinning circle sheesh and it's annoying as heck.  Wanna give me live view? so tell me who my visitor is, where he's coming from, what page they're on, what page / referrer they came from, and what key word they used to get there! 
And at least with the old flat view, you got the excitement of seeing the hill rise when they added to cart or started check out ROFL!

Yes, they are not fulfilling their advertised obligations especially since they keep marketing to small businesses / custom creators!    So they duplicated all those fields and yes the duplication is for the variations (which half of them are my way of selling things or things like  with photo / no photo etc that really have nothing to do with google for actual importance.   

But hey OK  the csv doesn't work   .... I manually updated every single product  it took me hours....   but I still have no way to tell google that there's no need for a gtin/mpn/brand because my products are CUSTOM!!!!!    and the Custom = True field is not working to tell google that the identifier_exists is NO   so what's the purpose of that custom field?

One of the shopify reps told me to go to google merchant and make a feed rule (which doesn't really work for this purpose and google themselves never suggested it) but hey merchant lets put all the heavy lifting on you.  NO, this is why I switched to shopify because it was supposed to be seamless.   If I wanted to become a google / seo expert and do all this manually I'd just stick with my older website and not pay shopify!

Oh and don't even let me start on everything that's wrong with what goes over to Bing webmaster  So many errors my head is spinning.

[eGarderoben]

Here we go everyone:

https://www.ipetitions.com/petition/fix-the-problem-with-google-product-info-tags

Please do share on your social media and network.

[Bikes-Angel]

@eGarderoben   Please add "export" to that so there's  no miscommunication because I don't want to re-do everything.   We need to export what's already populated into those fields within shopify products  so we can edit them  then import.   I have found with programmers / developers, if you leave something out, you're not going to get it.
And if you would add the identifier_exists field needs to be added to the csv and api  ( I mean they have 4 custom fields there for our own tracking which google states that most merchants DO NOT USE!  )  All custom creators need this  (and probably non custom shops too  since, gtin is not part of the google app on shopify  nor is brand  oye!)

[Stouty212]

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@eGarderoben wrote:

Here we go everyone:

https://www.ipetitions.com/petition/fix-the-problem-with-google-product-info-tags

Please do share on your social media and network.

---

Petition signed. Thank you for starting this, needs to be addressed urgently.

[JonSWR]

This is a ridiculous problem.  I agree with everyone's post...

The CSV even has Google headers and yet on import, none of my product categories populate.  Such a basic function.  Very disappointed this has not been fixed.

[Casey03]

Adding more weight to post.

Ridiculous feature not to be working! Needs to be resolved ASAP!

[Mick_Smith]

2 Years and still unresolved and zero reply from @Shopify ! Honestly that is pretty embarrassing, come on guys.

The crazy part is; I have set our google product categories in the CSV imported it and it doesn't update. When you select to edit a product then click 'more actions' and select 'Google Fields' the product category is blank. However, if I export the products again, the google product category field in the export is filled with my previous entries.

Shopify are storing the Google product category in the database of your products on the server otherwise it would not show up in the export when we create a new CSV. So the information is there on the server AND stored, it just isn't copied to the correct filed of the database when being imported. This seems like a pretty massive oversight with a pretty simple fix.

@Shopify please help us, I have over 600 products and I can't edit every single one of them individually, it would take literal hours for a basic function that should work! 

[eGarderoben]

@Mick_Smith more than 3000 products in my store and growing. I have to set this manually for every freaking product!

Having an ETA from @Shopify would be great or at least tell us if you don't care at all so ve invest in developing our own solution. 

[eGarderoben]

I should remind you all about an ongoing petition we started about this feature:

https://www.ipetitions.com/petition/fix-the-problem-with-google-product-info-tags

Please sign. 🤘

[Mick_Smith]

OK, so little bit of an update for anyone that still follows this. I have spent this morning talking with Shopify support over chat and once I explained the issue I had the following response.

So, I checked this and those columns are not in use at all anymore. They used to apply to the old Google Shopping app by Shopify but since the move to the Google Channel, they no longer work. In accordance to this, I have raised the issue to our developers to remove the columns and avoid confusion for all of our merchants.

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The columns they refer to are the columns in the CSV file.

I asked if they knew of any plans to add new fields that would work and this was the follow up.

Right now, I am not aware of any plans to do so. I believe it was removed because with the new channel it was not possible to integrate this. It is possible that they may be looking at alternative ways to do it, but I will add that request to my request to remove the current fields

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So it seems the Google channel was a step backwards in some respects.

[eGarderoben]

@Mick_Smith This is the exact reply I received a year ago! That is why we started a petition to ask them for developing a proper solution.

Apparently the dev. team do not care much for the "raised issues" by support. :)) Also interesting to know that instead of fixing the problem, they prefer to erase the question!