Enable automatic improvements

We would like to introduce the beta version of the Merchant API. It is the new version of the Content API for Shopping and the future.

For information about how Merchant API can improve your integration and how you can help shape the future, see Announcing the Merchant API Beta.

You can allow Google to update your products, images, and shipping estimates automatically based on your website’s landing page.

Automatic improvements are turned off by default, but are available for Shopping ads, Buy on Google, and free listings. This guide explains how you can enable automatic improvements for your merchant account, and what's updated if you do.

You can view the automatic improvements settings for your account in the AccountAutomaticImprovements resource.

Item updates

Automatic item updates lead to an improved user experience, more traffic to your products, and to higher conversion rates because customers see the correct price and availability of your products in your ads or free listings. For behavior specific to Buy on Google listings, see About automatic item updates.

Google uses the structured data markup we find on your website, and advanced data extractors, to update the following attributes of your products:

price

Google updates the active price for your Shopping products based on the prices found on your website.

availability

Google updates the availability of Shopping products to out_of_stock if an out_of_stock annotation is found on your website.

If you want Google to update out_of_stock Shopping products to in_stock based on your website too, set allowStrictAvailabilityUpdates to true.

strictAvailability

Google updates the availability of out_of_stock Shopping products to in_stock if an in_stock annotation is found on your website. You must also enable availability updates.

If you use out_of_stock to prevent traffic to specific in-stock items, for example, items with low stock, you may want to turn off strict availability updates by setting allowStrictAvailabilityUpdates to false.

condition

Google updates the condition of your Shopping products based on the information found on your website.

Important: Before you enable automatic item updates, set up structured data on your website.

Use the accountItemUpdatesSettings resource to manage automatic item updates for your account.

If automatic item update settings aren’t provided for a sub-account, the settings are inherited from the advanced account. You can check the current settings for your account in the fields that start with effective in accountItemUpdates. Fields that start with effective are read-only, and show the current setting for your account. If you change the accountItemUpdatesSettings for your sub-account, the fields that start with effective reflect your changes instead of the inherited settings.

Here’s a sample accountItemUpdates resource:

{
  "accountItemUpdatesSettings": {
    "allowPriceUpdates": true,
    "allowAvailabilityUpdates": false,
    "allowStrictAvailabilityUpdates": false
    "allowConditionUpdates": true
}
,
  "effectiveAllowPriceUpdates": true,
  "effectiveAllowAvailabilityUpdates": false,
  "effectiveAllowStrictAvailabilityUpdates": false
  "effectiveConditionUpdates": true
}

Images

Automatic image improvements update your product images to improve quality, and ensure they meet requirements. Image improvements only apply to disapproved products. For example, Google can automatically remove image overlays. If successful, the image is updated and approved.

Use the accountImageImprovementSettings resource to manage automatic image improvements for your account.

If automatic image improvement settings aren’t provided for a sub-account, the settings are inherited from the advanced account. You can check the current settings for your account in the effectiveAllowAutomaticImageImprovements field of accountImageImprovements. If you change the settings for a sub-account, effectiveAllowAutomaticImageImprovements reflects your changes instead of the inherited settings.

For more information, see About automatic image improvements.

Here’s a sample response where image improvements are enabled:

{
  "accountImageImprovementsSettings": {
    "allowAutomaticImageImprovements": true
}

  "effectiveAllowAutomaticImageImprovements": true
}

Shipping

Google can automatically update your estimated delivery time based on your historical performance, rather than the estimates in your shipping settings. The performance-based estimates show on ads and free listings.

Use the accountShippingImprovements field to manage automatic shipping improvements. Set allowShippingImprovements to true to allow Google to automatically update your estimated delivery time.

Not available for advanced accounts. This setting isn’t inherited. For more information about automatic shipping estimates and information specific to Buy on Google listings, see About letting Google calculate your shipping speeds.

Here’s an example:

{
  "allowShippingImprovements": true
}

There are no effective fields for accountShippingImprovements because shipping improvements aren’t inherited.