A Shopify merchant is experiencing issues where product variants appear as separate items in Google Merchant Center instead of being grouped together with an item_group_id.
Expected Behavior:
Troubleshooting Steps Suggested:
Technical Workaround:
One user shared a regex solution that extracts the product ID from Shopify’s item ID format (shopify_US_productID_variantID) to create consistent group IDs. However, this approach was noted to potentially violate Google’s best practices.
Important Note:
Google recommends not adding item_group_id to single-variant products, as this can cause issues with Buy on Google and trigger performance warnings.
The discussion remains open with no definitive resolution for the original poster’s specific case.
Hey
My products have many variants. Google Merchant Center is showing all of these variants as separate products. My products are linked with Google Merchant Center via Content API from Shopify. Could someone please advise how I should create Item Group ID for each product? Include the item group ID attribute via the Shopify application?
Thanks
If they are real variant defined in Shopify as a variant, then the app you are using will automatically assign item_group_id
If that is not the case, then I recommend you talk to Shopify support. However I have never heard of this problem before.
Unless you created 1 product listing for each variant then in this case, yes it will not automate the steps.
Then in this case you need to manually add the same item group id value to each linked variant using a supplement feed. Which is explained here: https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/7439058?hl=en
The products are real variant defined in Shopify as a variant. I just can´t figure this out…:S
Then by default item_group_id should be assigned. Then in this case there is a bug with the app you are using, and I recommend you contact support.
Alternatively, you may want to try a different app such as: https://apps.shopify.com/multiple-google-shopping-feeds
It seems item_group_id gets set (at least for me) on products which have more than 1 variant.
For products with no variants, item_group_id is not set.
To fix this, I’ve used a Google Feed Rule and use “Find & Replace”
My Item IDs look like this “shopify_US_$productID_$variantID”
So I use ID as Source Attribute and I set item_group_id (if it’s empty) to item ID and modify via a regex.
Find: ‘^shopify_US_([^]+).*$’
Replace: 'shopify_US\1’
So if my item ID is: shopify_US_1232145_9817216
The Group Item ID will get set to: shopify_US_1232145
Documentation:
https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/7450276?hl=en#findreplace&zippy=%2Cuse-find-replace
Screenshot:
The item group id value should only be assigned to products that have variants.
By adding the item group id to non variant products, Google will think its a variant, and may cause issues in programs such as Buy on Google.
It may also cause other warnings, which may limit the performance.
For single products, do not assign an item group id value.
As per Google Best practices, you’re advice seems to be correct.
https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/6324507?hl=en
Problem for me is my tracking tracks sales based off item_group_id and I didn’t notice that Shopify’s Google Channel removed them (date unknown to me, but they used to default to having them for every product)
Regardless if what I’m doing isn’t best practices, it will allow you to modify your group_id or add them if via other data in your google feed, so this might be useful to someone.
Hey! So my products are used clothing and according to Facebook commerce, you have to add a varient even if its just one product because of the clothing category. Now facebook is working but Google is getting two Shopify Ids, one for the main product and one for the varient. Based on your comment above, this is a bug and I should contact support or am I doing something wrong.
I know nothing about Facebook.
For Google Shopping, each individual variant, will be submitted as a unique product. As you are posting on someone elses thread, to avoid confusing the original poster, best to create a new thread, with your specific details and questions.
