Google Merchant Center Variations have Limited performance due to missing value GTIN - Help needed

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1

I have a Shopify store linked to Google Merchant Center. I have a large number of listings with the following warning:
Limited performance due to missing value [gtin]

This limits the performance and appearance of free shopping listings. This is due to certain listings not having a unique GTIN.

I sell some products supplied by Pokémon. Some of my products are variations but do not have unique GTINs - they are usually a different color or style but have the same GTIN. My customers often want to pick which style so need to split these items. I initially added a barcode but got an error for duplicate GTINs. To remove the duplicate GTIN error I had to list them as custom products but added a unique MPN. I am not sure how to fix this warning now.

Any ideas on how to get around this?

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Hi @eclipsecards

The warning ‘limited performance due to missing value[GTIN]’ will exist if you do not have a GTIN attribute for your product. As you have mentioned that you have GTIN for the product and not for the variants, send The GTIN values only for products and not for the variants. And also, make sure the products are grouped using “item group ID.” This will make sure that the products, along with the variants, are displayed to the customers under one GTIN value.

You will, however, still see the warning in the merchant center, but that should be fine. It will not affect your product performance in any way.

You can let us know if you need further assistance with your merchant center feed.

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Hi Sampymishra!

So I have created the product variations as separate listings. When I add the GTIN to them, Google Merchant Center gives the error ‘Duplicate GTIN’. How do I fix it in this case? Do you add the item group ID there too - can this be done through shopify itself?

4

You must keep the GTIN field empty for variants if you do not have a unique barcode. And yes, item group ID will be added to all the products and variants.

You can use the app Nabu for Google shopping feed. We add the item group id automatically to all the products and variants.

Hope this helps

5

So examples are like as follows. I have made two listings for the following products:
https://eclipsecards.com/products/pokemon-scarlet-violet-elite-trainer-box-koraidon
https://eclipsecards.com/products/pokemon-scarlet-violet-elite-trainer-box-miraidon

They both have the same GTIN supplied by the manufacturer - on this case I have left barcode blank. I added as custom products, but added an mpn. Is there correct from the shopify side?

6

Hello @eclipsecards ,

I am Gina from flareAI app helping Shopify merchants get $6Million+ in sales from Google Search, on autopilot.

If you’re selling products that have variations but do not have unique GTINs, you can use the ‘identifier exists’ attribute to indicate that the product does not have a GTIN. Follow these steps to do this.

  1. Log in to your Shopify account and go to the Google Sales Channel app.

  2. Click on the ‘Settings’ tab and then on ‘Additional Google settings’.

  3. Scroll down to the ‘Identifier exists’ section and select ‘No’ for the ‘Does your product have a GTIN?’ option.

  4. Save the changes and wait for them to be synced with Google Merchant Center.

By setting the ‘identifier exists’ attribute to ‘No’, you’re indicating to Google that the product does not have a GTIN and that it should not expect one for that product. However, please note that this may limit the performance of your listings in Google’s free shopping results, as products without unique identifiers may be less likely to appear in search results.

Another option is to use a custom identifier such as a manufacturer part number (MPN), which you mentioned you have already used. In this case, you can set the ‘identifier exists’ attribute to ‘Yes’ and provide the custom identifier in the ‘MPN’ attribute. This will ensure that your products are correctly identified, but please note that this may not be as effective as using a unique GTIN.

It’s important to note that while these solutions may help with the ‘limited performance due to missing value [gtin]’ warning, it may not completely resolve the issue. It’s always recommended to have unique identifiers for each product, if possible, to ensure the best performance in Google Merchant Center.

Gina

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Is there another way of listing the variations so that Duplicate GTIN errors resolve instead?

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Google is known not to accept product variations with the same barcode. There is no solution other than removing the brand, mpn and gtin values and set identifier exists to no.

You can not assign your own MPN, as the MPN is a Manufacturer Part Number, assigned by the manufacturer only. However if you have a valid MPN then add this with the brand value, and set the identifier exists to yes.

However, it seems to me, that you have to accept the limited performance flag.

One option would be to contact the manufacturer and ask for the MPN or ask them to add a unique barcode for each product.

Alternatively, do not list the variants and only list 1 main product, but still have the variation options available on the website.

Sometimes listing only 1 product vs all variants, will increase performance, as the traffic goes to 1 product instead of all variant which will then have better performance.