Google merchant centre, google & YouTube app and shopify custom shipping profiles

Payments + Shipping & Fulfilment

Topic summary

Issue: Shopify custom shipping profiles don’t sync shipping settings through the Google & YouTube app to Google Merchant Center (GMC), leading to mismatched rates or product rejections.

Key terms: GMC = Google Merchant Center. “Custom label 0” = a Google & YouTube app metafield column used to tag products.

Workaround steps:

  • In GMC Add-ons, enable Advanced data configuration.
  • In the Shopify Google & YouTube app, bulk edit products (Connected services > GMC), show columns, and use the metafield “Custom label 0” (do not create a separate metafield). Enter labels that represent each product’s shipping policy (e.g., “free_shipping”).
  • In GMC > Data sources, select the Shopify Merchant API feed and add an Attribute rule mapping Shipping label to Custom label 0.
  • In GMC > Delivery & returns, create shipping policies (e.g., Free shipping) and apply them to “Some products” using the label filter.

Outcome: Accurately applies product-level shipping policies in GMC despite the sync limitation, avoiding product rejections. Status: Resolved via a practical workaround; no open questions or disagreements noted.

Summarized with AI on December 12. AI used: gpt-5.
1

Hi, posting this to save everyone the headache and lost hours that I had…

If you have custom shipping profiles in shopify and you use the Google & Youtube app, you will not be able to leverage it to synch your shipping details and you will end up either setting shipping too high to avoid having google reject your products. There are some key points that are not obvious in the documentation.

  1. you need to go to GMC’s add-ons and toggle on the advanced data configuration section

  2. you need to go to the google & YouTube app and choose to do a bulk edit from within the connected services, gmc section, click on the … and choose bulk edit products. Not all columns will be visible so click columns, find the column that is under the meta fields google & yt section and it will be called custom label 0. Do NOT create a separate metafield for these as per some other instructions that are floating around (presumably for older versions). Add in the label that you want to represent your shipping policy e.g. if it’s for free shipping then enter free_shipping. Put the appropriate label in his column for each product and save.

  3. in GMC, data sources, choose the shopify merchant api data source that is sending your product info to GMC. there should be an attribute rule button, select that and then create a new rule where you set the shipping label to your shopify feed api custom label 0. save this.

  4. In GMC, create a new shipping policy under delivery & returns called free shipping and now when it prompts you to select all products or some products, choose some products and the ability to select based on a label should be there. click on this and select free shipping. If you create more than one label they should all be listed.

I hope this helps everyone else as it was a right PITA.

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