Reminders
- If you provide multiple shipping information for a product in the same country, we’ll calculate the lowest shipping cost for the product for a given situation and display that rate and the associated shipping speed to customers. If the shipping cost is the same, we'll use the shipping information with the fastest shipping speed.
- You can provide multiple shipping dimensions, such as setting shipping rate based on both weight and price factors, for a product in the same country by creating an Advanced cost table.
- The shipping costs you submit to Merchant Center should be as close as possible to what's on your website. If you can't match the costs closely, overestimate the figures you submit.
- The prices and delivery times configured using the shipping
[shipping]attribute will override account-level settings for the matching location for that product if the price[price]sub-attribute is submitted. - Updates to your shipping settings made using the automated API, including that by a third party platform such as Shopify, may overwrite manual updates from Merchant Center.
Step 1: Add shipping-related attributes to your products (optional)
Shipping label
- Shipping information can be associated with either all products or with groups of products, the latter of which can be specified using the shipping label
[shipping_label] - The shipping label attribute needs to be added to the products before you set up shipping settings.
Shipping weight and dimension
- To set your shipping costs based on weight, submit the shipping weight
[shipping_weight]attribute. - To use carrier-calculated shipping costs, enter the weight and dimensions of the package for your product using the following attributes:
Learn more about how to update products one by one in Merchant Center.
Learn more about how to update multiple products at the same time from a file to Merchant Center.
Learn more about how to update multiple products at the same time from Google Sheets to Merchant Center.
Step 2: Create new shipping information
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Sign in to your Merchant Center account. |
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Click Shipping and returns. |
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Click Add shipping policy. |
Note: You may configure up to 20 shipping information per country.
Step 3: Choose the countries you ship to
Select a single country or multiple countries you ship to that share shipping costs and shipping options. This should be where you want to ship to and may not necessarily be where the order is shipped from or where your business is based.
- You can specify multiple countries in a single shipping information, or create multiple shipping information for each country. To use country specific options such as carrier rate, create separate shipping information only for the country.
- If you convert shipping information with any of these features into a multi-country setup, these features will be removed.
Step 4: Choose which products to associate with this shipping information
- Select either “All products” or “specific products”.
- If you select “specific products”, choose from the list of shipping labels detected with your product data.
Note: You can proceed with the “specific products” option only if:
- You already have shipping information turned on for all products.
- The shipping label is added to your products.
If no shipping labels are available in the list, ensure you added the [shipping label] attribute to your products.
Step 5: Decide how you want to determine shipping speed
You can:
- Let Google determine shipping speed by carrier on your behalf (US only).
- Or enter specific shipping speed manually.
- For "Order cutoff", Choose the time of day by which orders must be placed to process them on the same day. Also, select the time zone in which this time is calculated. For example, a cutoff time of 3:00 PM EST means that orders placed after that time won't be processed until the next business day.
- For "Handling time", enter the minimum and the maximum number of days that processing could take. Add “0” if you process items the same day they're ordered. To choose which days of the week you're processing orders, use the drop-down menu and select a day range (for example: Mon-Fri, Mon-Sat).
- For “Transit time (days)”, select your Shipping time option and specify the minimum and the maximum number of days that transit could take. Merchants can choose from 3 options:
- All destinations
- Destination by zone
- Zones can be created and edited with postal codes and later used to define shipping speed
Holiday effects on estimated delivery date
Products with handling or shipping times that overlap with a national holiday will have the estimated delivery date extended by a day. The holidays in the following countries are considered non-business days when calculating estimated delivery date: Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, Japan, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Example
Here is an example of what estimated delivery date might look like with the settings below in Merchant Center:
- Order cut-off: 3 p.m. EST
- 0 - 1 handling days (fulfilled Monday - Friday)
- 3 - 5 transit days (fulfilled Monday - Saturday)
Google uses the maximum handling and delivery range to calculate the arrival date. If a customer places an order at 8 p.m. EST on Wednesday, the estimated delivery date will be the following Thursday.
| Minimum estimated delivery date: 6 calendar days |
Maximum estimated delivery date: 9 calendar day |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day of order | Day of week | Status | Day of order | Day of week | Status |
| Day 1 | Wednesday | Order placed after cutoff | Day 1 | Wednesday | Order placed after cutoff |
| Day 2 | Thursday | Handling time | Day 2 | Thursday | Handling time begins (Day 0*) |
| Day 3 | Friday | Transit time | Day 3 | Friday | Handling time ends (Day 1) |
| Day 4 | Saturday | Transit time | Day 4 | Saturday | Transit time |
| Day 5 | Sunday | No action | Day 5 | Sunday | No action |
| Day 6 | Monday | Transit time (including Delivery day) | Day 6 | Monday | Transit time |
| Day 7 | Tuesday | Transit time | |||
| Day 8 | Wednesday | Transit time | |||
| Day 9 | Thursday | Transit time (including delivery day) | |||
* “Day 0” means “same day” for orders placed before the cut-off time. For orders placed after cut-off, “Day 0” is then the next business day. In other words, all handling time is counted starting with “Day 0”, regardless of when the order is placed in relation to the cut-off time.
Regions functionality for speed
Regions allow merchants to manually share different speeds based on customer locations. A region is a geographic area defined by a set of postal codes.
Shipping speed by region is currently available to be defined by postal codes in the following countries: US, DE, FR, GB, IN, BR, CA, AU, and NZ.
To show this information, specify both order handling time and transit time for your products. Learn more about how to Set up estimated delivery time.
Step 6: Calculate your shipping costs
- Select the currency that matches the product price associated with this shipping information.
- The target country may disapprove of your items if there is no shipping service matching products currency and target country. Shipping along with product price will be converted and displayed in the user's preferred destination country.
- Merchants can select from 2 “Order value conditions”:
- “Free shipping over a specific order value”
- “No shipping below a specific order value”
- Choose the Shipping cost option that mirrors how you charge for shipping on your site.
| Shipping cost options | How you charge | Shipping cost type | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free shipping | All orders get free shipping. | Free shipping | |
| Free shipping over a certain amount | You charge your customers on orders below the threshold order value. | Free shipping is dependent on order value. |
Free shipping is dependent on order value. Free shipping for orders over $100 USD. |
| Paid shipping | All orders have the same shipping fee. | Flat rate fee | $5 USD for all orders. |
| You charge your customers exactly what you pay for shipping with common carriers. |
Carrier (available for AU, DE, UK, and US). You’ll also need to submit the shipping weight and dimension attributes. Rates are automatically calculated based on common carrier rates for all customers, and the rates update if the carrier rates change. Learn more in the section below. |
You charge your customers exactly what you pay for shipping with common carriers. | |
| Your shipping cost depends on the order value. | Price |
For orders below $20 USD, you charge $5 USD. For orders $20.00 and above, you charge $2 USD. |
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| Shipping rate is determined based on package weight. |
Weight You’ll also need to submit the shipping weight attribute |
For products up to 5 kg, you charge $5 USD. For products 5.0001 kg and above, your shipping is free. |
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| Based on destination (AU, BR, CA, DE, FR, IN, JP, NZ, UK, or US only) |
Destination |
No shipping for Hawaii | |
| Shipping rate is determined based on number of items. | Quantity You will need to add range of quantity |
The shipping fee for buying 1 - 10 products is $10 USD, and 11 - 100 is $20 USD |
Shipping cost by quantity
Shipping cost can also be determined by quantity, meaning your rate will be based on the number of items you have. When you use this option, you will need to add a range of quantities.
Example:
The shipping fee for buying 1 - 10 products is $10 USD and 11 - 100 is $20 USD.
Advanced cost table
You can also use an “Advanced cost table”, which calculates shipping cost based on multiple factors.
When you create an “Advanced cost table”, you can create a table with up to 25 rows, 10 columns, and 2 dimensions. You can provide multiple shipping dimensions, such as setting shipping rate based on both weight and price factors for a product in the same country. Below are the listed factors that you can use to calculate costs:
- Price
- Weight
- Destination
- Number of items
Cost by Region
Regions allow merchants to manually share different costs based on customer locations. Costs are determined by where customers are located by destinations of state/region and postal code. The following chart details availability for shipping cost by Region for region and Postal Code:
| Destination by state/region | US, DE, FR, IN, JP, BR, AU, NZ |
| Destination by Postal Code | US, DE, FR, GB, IN, BR, CA, AU, NZ |
Shipping cost rate type
On top of the “flat rate”, “free shipping”, ”carrier rate” in the table above, you can also use the rate types listed in the table below for shipping cost setup:
| How you charge | Shipping option | Example |
| N/A | Does not ship | No shipping for orders under $5 USD |
| You charge for shipping based on a percentage of the order value. | Percentage of product price | For an order with a value of $50 USD, you charge 10%, leading to a shipping cost of $5 USD. |
| Shipping rate depends on distance to the customer. | Destination | You can set a cost for each destination by region. |
Carrier rate (AU, DE, UK, and US only)
| Region | Supported shipping carrier | Service |
| DE | DHL | Paket Päckchen |
| DPD | Express 12 Express Classic Parcel |
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| Hermes | Päckchen Paketklasse S Paketklasse M Paketklasse L |
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| UPS | Express Express Saver Standard |
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| AU | Australia Post | Regular Parcel Express Post |
| TNT | Road Express Overnight Express |
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| TOLL | Road Delivery Overnight Priority |
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| US | FedEx | Ground Home Delivery Express Saver First Overnight Priority Overnight Standard Overnight 2Day |
| UPS | 2nd Day Air 2nd Day Air AM 3 Day Select Ground Next Day Air Next Day Air Early AM Next Day Air Saver |
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| USPS | Priority Mail Express Media Mail Retail Ground Priority Mail First Class Mail First Class Package |
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| GB | DHL UK | Express Express 12 |
| DPD UK | Express 12 Express Next Day Standard Parcel 12 Standard Parcel Next Day Standard Parcel Two Day |
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| RMG (Royal Mail) | 1st Class Small Parcel 1st Class Medium Parcel 2nd Class Small Parcel 2nd Class Medium Parcel |
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| TNT | Express Express 10 Express 12 |
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| UPS UK | Express Express Saver Standard |
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| Yodel | B2C 48HR B2C 72HR B2C Packet |
To use this option:
- For "Carrier service*", select one of the supported carriers along with the service (for example, UPS Ground). The carriers are different for each service area.
- Enter the "Origin postal code*" where the package will ship from (for example, "94043").
- Next, if necessary, select “Manually adjust shipping rates” to make changes to your shipping carrier’s standard rates here. For example, you may have a discount.
Rate modifications
Carrier rates use the standard commercial rates for each carrier, but you can adjust the rates (up or down) by a percentage or flat amount.
Some carriers have multiple rates for commercial and personal purposes. Google uses commercial rates (for example, “Standard” for FedEx and “Daily” for UPS). If you use non-commercial shipping costs (often called retail), you’ll likely need to adjust the rates up by 50-60%.