Pick up later enables you to provide a direct online-to-offline experience for your customers. For items that can be collected in store within a specific SLA regardless of shop availability, pick up later enables you to use your shops as an omnichannel asset and differentiator. Unlike other in-store products, pick up later doesn't require full inventory information.
In order to implement pick up later with product data, you must meet the following requirements:
- The availability
[availability]attribute of your products must be 'in stock'. - You must be able to identify your shop locations that are eligible to fulfil online orders.
- You must be able to fulfil click-and-collect orders even when a product isn't physically in stock at your shop locations.
Note: To submit inventory information specific to different shops, implement pick up later with in-store inventory data.
On this page
- Website requirements
- Data requirements
- Select participating Business Profile locations
- Opt in to pick up later with product data
- Switch from a landing page experience to and from pick up later with product data
Website requirements
To be eligible for pick up later with product data, your website must meet the following requirements on both desktop and mobile devices, including tablets:
- Must provide option to collect a product: The landing page or the checkout flow must display the option to collect the product on a later date.
- Collection SLA must be: When showing the collection option on your website, it must be clear when the item will be available for collection.
- Allow customers to select the shop where their order will be delivered: Customers should be able to select to which shop a product will be delivered.
- Allow customers to complete their order on your website: Customers must be able to purchase or reserve a product via your website for collection.
- If charged, display the collection fee: If there are any extra charges for collection, it must be clear. This can be shown on the checkout flow. For a more detailed overview of what constitutes a misrepresentation, consult our misrepresentation policy.
- Must provide collection confirmation: A notification must be sent when the order is ready to be collected (for example, by sending an email or SMS).
- Must show fulfilment option before payment information is entered: Allow customers to view your fulfilment options before checking out. For a more detailed overview of what constitutes a misrepresentation, consult our misrepresentation policy.
Website recommendations
In addition to the website requirements above, we recommend the following:
- Don't require customers to create an account before showing your fulfilment options (e.g. provide a 'checkout as guest' option).
- Don't require customers to enter address information before showing your fulfilment options.
Data requirements
In addition to the data source requirements for Shopping ads, you must add the following attributes to your primary data source:
| Attribute | Optional or required | Possible values | Note |
Collection method [pickup_method] |
Optional |
Text/tab-delimited example <g:pickup_method>deliver to shop</g:pickup_method> |
Don't submit the following values:
For each product that's eligible to be fulfilled at one of your shop locations, submit 'deliver to shop'. For all other products, submit 'not supported'. |
Collection SLA [pickup_sla] |
Required |
Text/tab-delimited example multi-week XML example |
Don't submit the following values:
Submit the maximum amount of time that it will take for you to fulfil an online order to one of your shops. If the item's collection method [pickup_sla] to multi-week if you want to show a fixed annotation, the ad will render the annotation 'Click and collect'. |
Select participating Business Profile locations
By default, Google will show in the linked Business Profile location group.
If all of your shop locations are eligible to fulfil online orders, select the Business Profile location group that contains all of your shop locations during account linking.
If only a subset of your shop locations are eligible to fulfil online orders, organise these shops into a separate location group. During account linking, select this location group.
If you're unable to re-organise your shop locations into groups, reach out to our support team by filling in the contact us form and selecting 'I want to implement additional features'. Under 'Summary of issue', specify the shop codes and addresses of the locations that aren't eligible to allow users to collect your products.
Opt in to pick up later with product data
For pick up later with product data, you need to have activated the local inventory ads or free local listings add-on. When it's ready, follow the steps bellow:
In your Merchant Center account, click the Settings and tools icon
. Then, select Add-ons.
Select your add-ons.
In the 'Free local listings' or 'Local inventory ads' card, click Go to free local listings or Go to local inventory ads.
Click Show me next to the country in which you want to set pick up later with product data up.
Select 'Your in-store product availability'.
Select 'Let customers know that I can deliver products to shops'.
Add a URL that shows a product page with pick up later information.
If you have not started onboarding yet, follow the implementation guide.
Pick up later with product data review status
Your pick up later status can may show:
- Verified: No further action needed.
- Under review: Check back soon. The URL for your web page is under review. This process can take up to a week.
- Request review: Google reviewed and rejected your URL. Ensure that your URL and business meet the pick up later requirements and make any necessary updates. Then re-submit your product URL example.
- Action required: An invalid URL has been submitted. Review and update the provided link and click Save.
Switch from a landing page experience to and from pick up later with product data
If your product page experience is already reviewed or currently under review and you would like to change to pick up later with product data, or if you have onboarded with pick up later with product data and would like to change your product page experience to pick up later with in-store inventory data, follow the steps below:
Switch to pick up later with product data
Remove your current local inventory and free local listings ads setup
In your Merchant Center account, click the Settings and tools icon
. Then, select Add-ons.
Select your add-ons. In the 'Free local inventory' and 'Local inventory ads' card, click Go to local inventory ads and free local listings.
Next to the country that you want to remove, click Delete and confirm this choice.
- Note: If this is the last country in your set up, the add-on for local inventory ads or free local listings will be removed and have to be enabled again.
Start your onboarding process with pick up later with product data
In your Merchant Center account, click the Settings and tools icon
and select Add-ons.
If you deleted all countries in the previous step, click the Discover tab and enable 'Free local listings' or 'Local inventory ads' add-on. If you still have enabled countries, select your add-ons.
In the 'Free local listings' or 'Local inventory ads' card, click Go to free local listings or Go to local inventory ads, next to the country that you want to set up with pick up later with product data.
Select 'Your in-store product availability'.
Select 'Let customers know that I can deliver products to shops'.
Add a URL that shows a product page with pick up later information.
Add the required attribute: collection SLA
[pickup_SLA] and collection method [pickup_method] as needed, in either your primary or your inventory data source.
Switch to pick up later with in-store inventory data
Remove your current local inventory ads and free local listings setup
In your Merchant Center account, click the Settings and tools icon
. Then, select Add-ons.
Select your add-ons.
In the 'Free local listings' or 'Local inventory ads' card, click Go to free local listings or Go to local inventory ads.
Next to the country that you want to remove, click Delete to confirm this choice.
If this is the last country in your set up, the add-on for free local listings or local inventory ads will be removed and have to be enabled again.
Start your onboarding process with pick up later with in-store inventory data
If you don't have an active country in your account, first enable the free local listings or local inventory ads add-on. Follow the implementation guide for local inventory ads and at step 6, select Customers can pick them up later at a shop. If your website also has the option to pick up today, you can select Customers can pick them up on the same or next day to complement pick up later.
Frequently asked questions
How does pick up later with product data work?
Google will create inventory entries for each product for each of the shops in your linked location group. Since you're able to deliver your products indicated in your primary data source to each of your shops, Google will allow you to advertise those products for each of the shops along with the SLA on how long it will take you to deliver the product to the shop.
Can I advertise products that are marked as 'out of stock' in my primary data source for pick up later with product data?
No. Products with the availability 'out of stock' in your primary data source aren't eligible for pick up later with product data.
Pick up later with product data enables you to create ads, showing your local products for your items available online. Since your products available online can be delivered to your shops, you can advertise the products along with the SLA on how long it will take to deliver these products to all of your shops. For this feature to work, the product needs to be fulfillable online. This will allow Google to guarantee that the product can be transacted on.
By using pick up later with product data in my Merchant Center account, can I also advertise in-stock inventory?
What should I do if a few products can't be delivered to all of my shops?
[pickup_SLA] and collection method [pickup_method], refer to how to implement pick up later using local inventory ads.Can I submit specific SLAs for different shops using pick up later with product data?
[pickup_SLA] and collection method [pickup_method], view how to implement pick up later using local inventory ads.How do I recognise my pick up later offers in Google Ads?
Can I use pick up later with product data in combination with local inventory ads and also provide inventory and pickup_sla information via inventory data source?
Yes. To use pick up later for Shopping ads in combination with an inventory data source, you should avoid providing conflicting information between the primary data source and inventory data source: For example, if a product is set to 'in stock' in the primary data source and also contains pick up later values (for example, pickup_method set to 'deliver to shop' and pickup_SLA set to '3-day'), the information from the inventory data source will take precedence. Therefore, products that are in the local inventory data source will be disregarded for pick up later from the primary data source.
Can I submit the necessary attributes for pick up later for Shopping ads via Google's Content API for Shopping?
Yes, you can submit product information for pick up later to Shopping ads. However, you will need to re-submit all of the required product information, including the ID [id], title [title], image link [image_link] and others via the product.insert method with the channel set to 'local'.
By using local inventory insert API, you can also submit the pick up later attributes, collection SLA [pickup_sla] and collection method [pickup_method]. Note that the field 'storeCode' is required. You can add the relevant shop codes within your Business Profile account or add it directly from Google Search. Learn more about how to submit product information via the Content API for Shopping.
Bear in mind that the attributes required for pick up later for Shopping ads are not supported with the channel set to 'online'.
How can I migrate from pick up later with shopping data to pick up later with in-store inventory data?
If the pick up later inventory that's automatically created from your product exceeds our quotas, our support team will contact you to discuss the next steps.
The quotas have been set to be sufficient for the majority of retailers and we expect the quota to be exceeded only in rare instances.
Even if the pick-up attributes have been submitted, not all of your products will be able to create pick up later inventory automatically once the quota limit has been exceeded.
These products will be identified through the missing inventory issue in the 'Diagnostics' page of the local inventory ads.
If your account has exceeded the limit for the automatically generated pick up later inventory, our support team will either contact you directly or your Google representative.
If your limit has been exceeded, our support team will guide you through the next steps. This may involve removing the pick-up attribute from several products or limiting the number of shops for which inventory can be automatically generated. If the quota can't be reduced through these methods, we may need to pause the automatic inventory generation for all the products, resulting in the removal of all automatically created inventory.
