Use Comparison Shopping Service (CSS) Centre as a resource to get an overview of your business and manage the merchant accounts for the merchants that you represent.
Before you begin
To navigate CSS Centre, you'll need to be familiar with the various types of CSS accounts, including CSS groups, CSS domains and various types of merchant accounts. Learn more about account types in Comparison Shopping Service Centre
CSS group
Overview
The 'Overview' page lets you view critical notifications and a list of all the domains within a CSS group, including some metrics for each CSS domain. From here, you can narrow to the CSS domain level, from which you can view the 'Merchant details' page for any of the CSS domains within the CSS group.
The 'Overview page' has a table that shows information about CSS domains. The table includes the following columns:
| Domain: This column lists the name for each CSS domain affiliated with the CSS group. If you click on the domain name, you'll be directed to the 'Overview' page for that CSS domain. | |
| ID: This column lists the account ID for each CSS domain. Every CSS domain has only one ID. | |
| Label: This column allows you to add or edit labels for each CSS domain. Learn more about account labels in Comparison Shopping Service Centre | |
| Total accounts and their status: This set of columns shows the number of accounts with the specific status in the particular CSS domain. |
There are two options to access a different CSS domain within the same CSS group:
- Use the CSS group drop-down menu to select a CSS domain.
- Select Overview from the page menu and select a CSS domain from the 'Domains' column. This will take you to the 'Overview' page of the CSS domain.
To go back to the 'Overview' page of the CSS group, click the CSS group name in the top navigation bar.
Reports
View detailed information regarding performance for your CSS group and associated merchant accounts in the 'Merchant Performance' report. Learn more about reports in Comparison Shopping Service Centre
CSS domain
Overview
The 'Overview' page highlights important information about your CSS and your associated merchants and lets you quickly view data regarding performance, status, history and more.
Merchant details page
The Merchant details page lets you view a list of all the accounts associated with a CSS domain, their account type and (for MCAs) the number of sub-accounts. From here, you can navigate to Merchant Center accounts and sub-accounts.
The Merchant details page includes the following columns:
| Account: This column provides the name of the Merchant Center account and its account ID. | |
| Account type: This column identifies the Merchant Center account type and (for MCAs) includes the number of sub-accounts. If you click on the number of sub-accounts, you'll be taken to the CSS Centre page for that specific MCA. From there, you can view all sub-accounts along with their status, labels, submitted items and websites. | |
| Label: This column allows you to add or edit labels for each account. Learn more about account labels in Comparison Shopping Service Centre | |
| Submitted items: This column provides the number of items submitted for a specific Merchant Center account (or sub-account). | |
| Website: This column provides the URL of the merchant's website. If you need to edit the existing website, you'll need to do so in Merchant Center. | |
| Merchant Center: This column provides one-click access from CSS Centre to the merchant account in Merchant Center, provided that permissions have been granted. |
To access a specific Merchant Center account:
- Navigate to the CSS domain to which the merchant account is associated.
- Click the filter icon
, select the dimension that you'd like to filter by (e.g. 'label' or 'ID'), then enter the title of the filter to find the merchant account that you'd like to access.
- Once you've found the account, click on the icon in the 'Merchant Center' column to open the account in Merchant Center.
, select the dimension that you'd like to filter by (e.g. 'label' or 'ID'), then enter the title of the filter to find the merchant account that you'd like to access.To see all sub-accounts for an MCA:
- Navigate to the Merchant details page for the CSS domain to which the MCA is associated.
- Use the filter icon
- Click on the number of sub-accounts listed in the 'Account type' column to view all sub-accounts.
Account status
The account status icons that appear in the 'Accounts' column for individual merchant accounts or MCA sub-accounts let you know if an account has been opted out, if it has been suspended or if it has received any warnings. Opt-out status can change when a merchant opts out from your CSS or when a merchant chooses to opt in again. Any merchant who does not take an action is opted in by default.
| Icon | Title | Description |
| Opted out | Account has been opted out from serving Shopping ads through this particular CSS. | |
| Suspended | Account has not been opted out but is suspended in at least one country. | |
| Warning | Account has not been opted out and not suspended but has at least one warning in at least one country. | |
| No suspension issues | Account has not been opted out, not suspended and has no warnings. |
Accessing Merchant Center from CSS Centre
You can access Merchant Center from CSS Centre provided that the merchant has granted such permissions. Learn more about user access in Google Merchant Center for CSS Centre users
Reports
CSS Centre offers reports that allow you to view:
- Fulfilment of your CSS requirements with the 'CSS requirements' report
- Your portfolio overview with 'Merchant Performance' and 'Merchant status' reports
- The progress of your switch requests with the 'Switch history' report
- Diagnostics and opportunities to improve your portfolio performance with 'Setup and policy issues', 'Product issues' and 'Opportunities' reports.
Learn more about reports in Comparison Shopping Service Centre