Google Shopping XML feed example, with every required field

A complete example

Two products, one with a variant group, with every field this guide discusses:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss xmlns:g="http://base.google.com/ns/1.0" version="2.0">
  <channel>
    <title>Northline Home</title>
    <link>https://example.com</link>
    <description>Northline Home product feed</description>
    <item>
      <g:id>MUG-350-BLUE</g:id>
      <g:title>Northline ceramic mug, 350 mL, blue</g:title>
      <g:description>Dishwasher-safe glazed ceramic mug with a handle.</g:description>
      <g:link>https://example.com/products/mug-blue</g:link>
      <g:image_link>https://example.com/images/mug-blue.jpg</g:image_link>
      <g:availability>in_stock</g:availability>
      <g:price>18.00 USD</g:price>
      <g:brand>Northline</g:brand>
      <g:mpn>NL-MUG-350-BL</g:mpn>
      <g:google_product_category>2169</g:google_product_category>
      <g:product_type>Kitchen &gt; Mugs &amp; Cups</g:product_type>
    </item>
    <item>
      <g:id>DRESS-LIN-S-GRN</g:id>
      <g:item_group_id>DRESS-LIN</g:item_group_id>
      <g:title>Northline linen dress, green, size S</g:title>
      <g:description>Midi-length linen dress with side pockets.</g:description>
      <g:link>https://example.com/products/linen-dress?size=S&amp;color=green</g:link>
      <g:image_link>https://example.com/images/linen-dress-green.jpg</g:image_link>
      <g:availability>in_stock</g:availability>
      <g:price>89.00 USD</g:price>
      <g:sale_price>69.00 USD</g:sale_price>
      <g:brand>Northline</g:brand>
      <g:mpn>NL-DRS-LIN-S-GRN</g:mpn>
      <g:google_product_category>2271</g:google_product_category>
      <g:color>Green</g:color>
      <g:size>S</g:size>
      <g:gender>female</g:gender>
      <g:age_group>adult</g:age_group>
    </item>
  </channel>
</rss>

The URLs, brand and part numbers are placeholders. Neither product has a GTIN here because an invented barcode is worse than none; if your products have real GTINs, add <g:gtin> with the barcode number.

The wrapper: rss, channel and the namespace

The file is ordinary RSS 2.0. What makes it a Merchant Center feed is the namespace declaration on the rss element, xmlns:g="http://base.google.com/ns/1.0", and the g: prefix on every product attribute. Without the prefix, a tag like <price> is not a Google attribute.

The channel carries a title, link and description, which describe the feed, not a product. Save the file with the .xml extension, and register it in Merchant Center under the same file name it is published with.

Which fields are required

The apparel and variant rows are why the dress carries more fields than the mug. The full list of countries is in Google’s product data specification; the GTIN, MPN and SKU guide explains which identifier is which.

Escaping: the error that breaks the whole file

XML treats & and < as markup. A raw ampersand anywhere, in a title, a description or a URL with two query parameters, makes the file invalid XML, and a file that does not parse cannot be processed. Write them as & and <, as the dress link above does.

This is a practical reason to send google_product_category as the ID. The path for the mug is Home & Garden > Kitchen & Dining > Tableware > Drinkware > Mugs, with two ampersands to escape; the ID is 2169, with none. Google recommends the ID anyway. The ID or path guide covers the other reasons.

Filling google_product_category for every item

For a handful of products, the Category Finder gives the ID for one title at a time, and the taxonomy download has the whole list as CSV or Excel to filter by hand. For a catalog, the Bulk Mapper returns an ID for every row, which you can merge into the feed or send as a supplemental data source without touching the XML at all.

XML is not the only option. Merchant Center also reads tab-separated text and Google Sheets; the feed format guide compares them.