Drop in Number of Active Items

Ask Me Anything Q&A Googleshoppingamarepo

Topic summary

A Shopify store owner is experiencing recurring “Drop in Number of Active Items” notifications from Google Merchant Center, with products being disapproved for unclear reasons. Google support has been difficult to access for clarification.

Main errors encountered:

  • Missing shipping information for specific countries (DE, GB, US)
  • Missing GTIN (Global Trade Item Number), with alternative requirements for MPN or Custom Product designation

Recommended solutions:

  • Check detailed diagnostics in Google Merchant Center’s product diagnostics page
  • Add shipping rates for affected countries through Merchant Center’s shipping services section
  • Important: Set shipping to “manual” in the Google & YouTube app to prevent manual rates from being overwritten
  • Follow provided video guide for resolving GTIN issues

The discussion remains open for the original poster to implement these fixes and report results.

Summarized with AI on October 24. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
1

I’ve linked my Shopify store to our google merchant business page, but from time to time, I receive emails saying that there’s been a “Drop in Number of Active Items”, and some of our items are not approved. Its a bit of a mind field, and I cant figure out why our products aren’t being approved. Its been very hard to reach someone at Google who can provide useful info!

Through Shopify, I go to the Products page > Filter > Publishing error on Google & YouTube > Bulk Edit Variants. Some of the errors displayed are:

“Missing shipping in some countries in [Shopping_ads] [DE,GB,US].”

“Enter a GTIN. If no GTIN exists, provide an MPN or select Custom Product”

Any advice on what these errors mean or how to fix them would be greatly appreciated!

2

Hello ArchangelCreations, thank you for your question and for joining the Shopify AMA. My name is Emmanuel, founder of FeedArmy, and your host for today’s AMA.

The first step to understanding what is happening, is to check the reasons.

You can do this here: https://merchants.google.com/mc/products/diagnostics

Each topic listed, should give you clues what to do.

For example, missing shipping, means you need to add shipping for Germany, the UK and US, do this here: https://merchants.google.com/mc/shipping/services

As you are using the Google and youtube app, make sure to set the shipping setting to manual in the app itself, otherwise your manual rates in Google Merchant Center will disappear.

For example for missing GTIN, follow this guide: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXfY-cVnTv4

Hope this helps.