Google Merchant Center is Google's free-of-charge platform where a shop uploads its catalogue (titles, prices, images, stock) so that products can appear in Search, the Shopping tab, Google Images, Lens and YouTube, either as free listings or as Google Ads. In our check of 24 Italian product searches on mobile on 28 October 2026, 19 showed at least one product panel fed by these catalogues.
Most guides stop at three lines: it costs nothing, you create an account, you upload a feed.
True. But that's the easy part.
So what's the hard part?
It's what we find every time we take over an existing account:
- countries switched on by accident, with listings shown in markets the shop doesn't ship to;
- products that expired quietly, because the feed hasn't refreshed in more than 30 days;
- nobody knows that in Europe those product panels are also filled by price comparison sites, not just by Google.
We see it on the shops we work with. Scovaventi sells food products online through Shopify: catalogue in Merchant Center generated by Google's app, campaigns afterwards. Result: €77,000 in sales in one year on a €20,000 advertising budget.
Bosatta sells Vespa and Piaggio spare parts in Italy, Spain, France and Germany, with one feed per country in Merchant Center: €240,000 in sales on a €65,000 budget.
What does that have to do with Merchant Center?
In both cases the campaigns came second. First there was a clean catalogue, country by country.
In this guide:
- what Merchant Center does and why it isn't Google Shopping;
- where products appear, with our check on 24 Italian searches;
- who actually fills those panels: Google Shopping and 18 comparison sites;
- how to open an account and what data Google asks for;
- the mistakes that make products disappear;
- what AI Mode changes, and why the AI report isn't available in the UK yet.
Let's start.
What Google Merchant Center is (and why it isn't the same as Google Shopping)
Merchant Center is the store of product data that Google reads. Google Ads Help describes it as a free-of-charge tool that helps people discover, explore and buy your products on Google, from Search to Maps and YouTube.
On its own it doesn't sell and doesn't advertise. Plenty of people look for it, though: in the UK "google merchant center" averages 6,600 searches a month, against 5,400 in Italy (Google Ads data via DataForSEO, last 12 months, October 2026).
Three names that get mixed up all the time:
- Merchant Center is where you upload and check product data;
- Google Shopping is one of the shop windows that shows it: the Shopping tab and the product panels in Search;
- Google Ads is where you pay to show it more, with Shopping or Performance Max campaigns.
So it's only for advertisers?
No. The same catalogue feeds free listings. According to Merchant Center Help on free listings, in most cases they are switched on by default and appear in the Shopping tab, in Search rich results, in Google Images, in Lens and, in some countries, on YouTube.
One detail most guides leave out: an "active" status allows a product to show, it doesn't guarantee it. What decides is how well your data matches the search.
If you work on catalogue SEO, Merchant Center is also a diagnostic tool: our guide to ecommerce SEO tools explains the job it does that no crawler does.
Where products appear (19 of 24 Italian searches)
We measured it. On 28 October 2026, between 10:04 and 10:07 UTC, we pulled the top 20 Google Italy mobile results with DataForSEO for 24 product searches, four in each of six sectors, and counted the blocks on the page. Paid ads were not part of the count.
| Sector | Searches checked | With a product panel | With People Also Ask | With a local pack |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clothing and sport | 4 | 2 | 4 | 2 |
| Home | 4 | 3 | 4 | 1 |
| Electronics | 4 | 3 | 3 | 0 |
| Beauty and health | 4 | 4 | 4 | 1 |
| DIY and tools | 4 | 3 | 1 | 1 |
| Food and pets | 4 | 4 | 3 | 0 |
| Total | 24 | 19 | 19 | 5 |
Three numbers worth keeping:
- 19 of 24 searches had at least one product panel, with 762 product listings across 21 panels;
- in 6 searches the panel sat within the first five blocks on the page, and in 2 it was the very first: "cordless drill" and "1 kg coffee beans";
- in none of the 24 searches did DataForSEO return an AI Overview. The same day, the search "google merchant center" did return one.
And the five without a panel?
Running shoes for men, a trekking backpack, a double sofa bed, a women's smartwatch and a tool trolley. Three of them showed a local pack with nearby shops: there, local listings and the map count, not the feed.
These are Italian results, not British ones. But the point carries: on many product searches the first item a person sees comes from a catalogue, not from an organic result. If yours isn't there, someone else takes the spot.
Who fills those panels: Google Shopping or a comparison site (18 names in 21 panels)
In Italy, as in the UK, a product reaches Google's panels through Google Shopping or through a Comparison Shopping Service (CSS). Merchant Center Help on CSSs lists 21 countries, including Italy, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, where Shopping ads and free product listings go through a CSS, and says Google Shopping bids for the merchants it represents like any other CSS.
Our Italian check shows it clearly:
- 16 of 21 panels included at least one comparison site other than Google;
- only 2 showed the Google group alone;
- in 3, the Google group wasn't there at all: wireless headphones, anti-wrinkle face cream and cordless drill.
The most frequent names: DesertBoy (spesasveglia.it) in 14 panels, Shoparize and Bigshopper in 10, idealo in 7, QualeScegliere, Trovaprezzi and Klarna in 6, Kelkoo in 4. 18 different comparison sites in total.
Do I have to sign up with a comparison site?
No. Free listings and ads through Google Shopping are still there. But the same help page says you can use several CSSs at the same time, and each CSS uses a separate Merchant Center account for the merchant it represents. The catalogue stays one; what changes is who carries it onto the page.
How to set up a Merchant Center account (and the choice you can't undo)
You need a Google Account with admin access and complete business details. The process in Google Ads Help has four steps:
- business details: shop name, opening hours, services, and whether you sell online, in store or both;
- the checkout options that apply to your business;
- products, imported automatically from your site during sign-up or added manually;
- any connected platforms, such as Shopify, that sync the catalogue for you.
Then three limits to know before you click:
- one email address, one Merchant Center account;
- the country you choose at setup can't be changed later;
- one user can be added to a maximum of 100 accounts.
What about WooCommerce or PrestaShop?
There the feed comes from a plugin or a feed manager; on Shopify it's generated by the Google & YouTube app. That's the Scovaventi setup, and the campaign side is in our guide to Google Ads for ecommerce.
On a multilingual shop the tricky part is something else: deciding which countries to switch on, and with which version of the site. We come back to it in the section on mistakes.
The product data Google asks for (seven required fields and a rule that starts in 2027)
The product data specification has seven attributes required for every product: ID, title, description, link, image link, availability and price. The others become required only in specific cases.
| Attribute | When it's required | Limit or rule |
|---|---|---|
| id | Always | Up to 50 characters |
| title | Always | Up to 150 characters, plain text |
| description | Always | Up to 5,000 characters |
| link | Always | URL starting with http or https |
| image_link | Always | At least 500 x 500 pixels, enforced from 31 January 2027 |
| availability | Always | One status per product |
| price | Always | Must match the price on the page |
| brand | Branded products | The manufacturer's name |
| gtin | New products with a manufacturer code | Up to 14 digits, GS1 check |
| shipping | Required in the UK and Italy for free listings | Or shipping settings in the account |
Two things in this table matter more than the rest.
First: from 31 January 2027, images under 500 x 500 pixels fall under the check. If your catalogue still has small photos uploaded years ago, now is the time to count them.
Second, the title. In Shopping campaigns Google takes the keywords from the feed: a title copied from your stock system won't match what people search for. In our guide to Google Ads for ecommerce we show a wine that, with an incomplete title, missed a query searched 5,400 times a month in Italy.
How to link Merchant Center to Google Ads (up to 500 accounts, one per campaign)
You link from Merchant Center under Settings, Access and services, Apps and services, then "Add service" and Google Ads. According to the linking guide, if you're an admin of both accounts the link is approved automatically; otherwise the admin of the other account has to accept.
The limits:
- one Merchant Center account can link to up to 500 Google Ads accounts;
- a campaign can use only one Merchant Center account;
- Google Ads manager accounts (MCC) can't be linked.
Then you choose the campaign type: standard Shopping, where you decide product groups and bids, or Performance Max, where Google decides almost everything. For Bosatta the rule was one feed and one campaign per country, because returns across the four markets can't be compared. If you'd rather hand it over, that's what our Google Ads management does.
The mistakes that make products disappear (we find three almost every time)
1. A feed that hasn't refreshed in 30 days
The expiration date guide is clear: all products expire from your Merchant Center account 30 days after the last refresh. The only exception is products entered directly in Merchant Center.
A file uploaded once and forgotten works for a month. Then the catalogue disappears, with no message to warn you.
2. Countries nobody chose
In March 2026 a clothing brand selling online in several languages wrote to us with a specific worry: Merchant Center showed several countries as active, including non-priority markets such as Malaysia, with Shopping listings pointing to the generic English version of the site.
Nobody had switched them on deliberately.
What harm does a listing in Malaysia do? With free listings only, not much. If a campaign has no matching location exclusions, you pay for clicks from countries you don't ship to.
3. A price that differs between feed and page
Googlebot compares the feed price with the price on the page and in the markup: if they don't match, the product may be disapproved. In our test of 20 Italian product pages, 3 had no readable price in the HTML.
And suspension of the whole account? That's a different story, with a warning period of 7 or 28 days: we cover it in our guide to a website banned from Google.
A catalogue that expires after 30 days doesn't throw errors: it just disappears.
At Scovaventi and Bosatta the first thing we fixed wasn't the bidding, it was the feed: the right countries, titles that contain what people search for, automatic refresh. If you want to know how many of your products are really active and which panels they appear in, we start from your Merchant Center diagnostics.
Book a strategy callMerchant Center and AI answers (the report the UK doesn't have yet)
Google says AI Mode shopping brings together Gemini and the Shopping Graph, its product database, which in May 2025 held more than 50 billion product listings, with over 2 billion refreshed every hour.
Merchant Center already has a report for this: AI performance insights shows your products' share of voice in AI Mode and AI Overviews for conversational shopping queries, split into three stages (discovery, evaluation, ready to buy).
Can I see it in my account?
Not from the UK, and not from Italy. As of 28 October 2026 the help page limits it to English-language queries and accounts in the United States, Australia, Canada, India and New Zealand. According to Search Engine Roundtable, the US launched in July 2026 and the other four countries followed in September.
What can you do meanwhile? Keep feed, product page and structured data consistent: same price, same availability, same delivery times and returns. That's the information an AI assistant needs to read to suggest a product, and it doesn't guarantee any citation. On shopping agents we have a guide to agentic commerce; on how Google picks sources for its answers, see our guides to AI Mode and to brand mentions in AI answers.
Our Italian check adds one detail: across 24 product searches no AI Overview appeared, while there were 21 product panels. Today, on these searches in Italy, Google still answers with a catalogue. Nobody knows how long that will last, which is why it pays to arrive with your data in order.
Frequently asked questions
No. Google describes it as free of charge: opening an account and appearing in free listings costs nothing. You only pay if you link Google Ads and advertise, or if a comparison shopping service (CSS) charges for its service.
No. Merchant Center is where you upload and check product data; Google Shopping is one of the shop windows that shows it, alongside product panels in Search, Google Images, Lens and YouTube.
No. A physical shop can use free local listings to show products in stock, with price and quantity per store. An online shop is still the most common case.
Yes. Merchant Center Help allows it: each CSS uses a separate Merchant Center account for your shop. In our check on 24 Italian searches, 16 of 21 product panels included at least one comparison site other than Google.
No. According to Google's help, the country chosen at setup can't be changed later. That's why it's worth deciding before you create the account, based on where you actually ship.
It depends: the AI performance insights report exists, but as of 28 October 2026 it only covers English-language queries and accounts in the United States, Australia, Canada, India and New Zealand. UK and Italian accounts don't have it yet.
Where to start (a ten-minute check)
Merchant Center is the catalogue, not the advertising.
19 of 24 Italian product searches show a product panel.
16 of 21 panels include at least one comparison site.
Without a refresh, products expire after 30 days.
The AI report, for now, isn't available in the UK.
The check to do today: open Merchant Center and look at how many products are active compared with your catalogue, in which countries, and when the feed last refreshed.
One last thing nobody looks at. In 3 of 21 panels the Google group was missing entirely: on those searches, the only way in was through a comparison site. Before asking how much to put into Shopping, ask which door you're using to get into the panels.
