High level overview of the features of shipping and return configuration
When submitting your products to Merchant Center, you’ll also provide information about how much you charge for shipping and how long it’ll take for customers to receive their orders. Your shipping settings are used across Google features, including Shopping ads, and free product listings. Shipping speed and cost are 2 of the most common reasons why customers abandon their shopping choices, so you’ll want to be sure your shipping settings are accurate and up-to-date. When you submit your product data to show Shopping ads or free listings, you may also choose to provide information about your return and refund policies. Return policy is a key factor for people who are making a purchasing decision, and showing your policies on your ads, listings, and Gmail may help the performance of your products.
This article will provide you with the best practices for setting up their shipping and return configurations. This article will cover everything from carrier-based shipping costs and speeds to free shipping thresholds and return policies.
On this page
- Benefits of optimizing shipping and return settings
- Best practices for shipping configuration
- When and who should use shipping configuration
- Best practices for return configuration
- Pitfalls to avoid when setting up shipping and return
Benefits of optimizing shipping and return settings
- Reduce item disapproval: Accurate cost shown can prevent offers from being disapproved.
- Reduced cart abandonment: Fast and accurate shipping information can reduce the chances of shoppers abandoning their carts due to unexpected costs or long delivery times.
- Increased click-through rates: Shoppers prioritize shipping information when making online purchases. Displaying clear shipping details can increase click-through rates.
Improved product visibility: Annotations like “Fast and free shipping” and ”same-day delivery” can make your products stand out on search results pages.
Best practices for Shipping configuration
For offer level shipping settings
- Use the shipping attribute to specify shipping speed and cost for individual products. This attribute is useful for overriding account-level shipping settings when necessary, for instance, for bulky or fragile products.
- Include all relevant shipping charges. This includes charges for shipping, delivery, handling, logistics, or carrier.
For account level shipping settings
- Set up shipping settings at the account level first. This creates a baseline for shipping costs and speeds for all products.
- Ensure that shipping rates in Merchant Center match those on your website. This helps avoid inaccurate shipping cost warnings or item disapprovals.
- Use a supplemental feed to add the Shipping label
[shipping_label]attribute to group products for each target country if using shipping services for multiple target countries. The Item IDs should be identical to the primary feed. - If using weight-based shipping services, add the Shipping weight
[shipping_weight]attribute to each product in the feed. - If a product's weight exceeds the supported value for a particular shipping service, use the Shipping label
[shipping_label]attribute to configure alternative shipping rates. - Overestimate shipping costs if an accurate cost cannot be provided. Matching or overestimating the cost users would pay is recommended. However, excessive overestimation may negatively impact product performance.
- Submit a shipping price in the target country's currency according to ISO 4217. For example, submit $1.01 USD instead of $1.0012 USD.
Avoid submitting conflicting information if the shipping attribute is submitted multiple times. For example, avoid submitting 2 different prices for the same region or service class.
Leverage helpful tools for shipping configuration
Carrier-based shipping cost and speed
Who should use
- Merchants who sell products in AU, DE, UK, and US can use carrier-based shipping cost and merchants who sell products in US, DE, and FR can use carrier-based shipping speed cost.
- If you are partnered with carriers to get real-time shipping costs and delivery times based on the customer's location and the product's weight and dimensions.
When to use
- When I configure shipping settings at the account-level in Merchant Center and want to have Google to calculate my shipping speeds based on my carrier.
Learn more on how to setup carrier based shipping cost.
Learn more on how to setup carrier based shipping speed.
Set free shipping thresholds
Who should use
- Merchants who offer free shipping on certain products or orders over a minimum amount. For example, if you set the threshold to 100 USD, orders over 100 USD will ship for free, while orders under 100 USD will be charged the standard shipping rate.
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When to use
- If you set up shipping settings at the account level, you can configure free shipping over a certain amount at the account level by setting up a shipping rate table.
- If you use the shipping
[shipping]attribute to display offer level shipping information, use the free shipping threshold[free_shipping_threshold]attribute to indicate an order cost above which shipping is free.
Regional shipping
Who should use
- Regional shipping is available for merchants who sell products in the US, DE, FR, IN, JP, BR, CA, AU, NZ, and GB locations.
- If your products have different shipping costs or speeds based on the customer's location.
When to use
- I want to prevent shipping to particular states within the US, such as Hawaii and Alaska.
- Merchants who are selling in Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom.
- Merchants who wish to show competitive shipping options to users.
- Merchants who want to allow shoppers to pick up their orders from designated locations for added convenience and lower shipping costs.
Link your partner account
Who should use
- Merchants who are selling in the US.
- Merchants who use ShipStation.
- Merchants who want to integrate with shipping partners to provide accurate order tracking data, which can improve shipping speed calculations and eligibility for fast and free shipping annotations.
Collection point options
Who should use
- Merchants who are selling in Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom.
- Merchants who wish to show competitive shipping options to users.
- Merchants who want to allow shoppers to pick up their orders from designated locations for added convenience and lower shipping costs.
Link your partner account
Who should use
- Merchants who are selling in the US.
- Merchants who use ShipStation.
- Merchants who want to integrate with shipping partners to provide accurate order tracking data, which can improve shipping speed calculations and eligibility for fast and free shipping annotations.
Best practices for return configuration
Set clear return policies
- Ensure that the return policy is accessible to all users visiting your online store without requiring them to log in, sign up, or enter any personal information.
- Confirm that the return policies are consistent between Merchant Center and your website, and also throughout your website, including the footer, returns page, and web banner.
- The return policy URL should be a separate URL, not combined with FAQs or terms and privacy.
- Clearly state how you handle returns and refunds on your website, including the timeframe for accepting returns, return method, return fees, and so on.
- After updating the return policy in Merchant Center, wait for the system to review the new policy, which may take up to 10 business days.
Additional tips
Consider offering free returns to enhance customer satisfaction and reduce the risk of cart abandonment due to return concerns. Extend your return period beyond the standard 30-days to provide shoppers with ample time to make a decision.
Pitfalls to avoid when setting up shipping and return
Common shipping issues
- Inaccurate shipping costs: When the shipping costs in the Merchant Center are lower than those on the website during checkout, an account warning or suspension may occur. The shipping costs provided in the Merchant Center may not match if changes to the website are not updated in the product data.
- Mismatched shipping currency: If the currency of the shipping costs does not match the currency of the products, products may be disapproved.
- Missing shipping weight attribute: When using a weight-based shipping service, the shipping_weight attribute is required on the feed for each product. If the shipping_weight attribute is missing, products may be disapproved.
- Shopify shipping sync issues: Changes to shipping settings in Shopify may not always sync correctly to Google Merchant Center, refer to Shipping best practices (for Shopify users) to learn more.
Common return issues
- Ensure the return policy in the Merchant Center matches the return policy on the website. Discrepancies between the return information provided in Merchant Center and the online store can result in the rejection of the return policy. For instance, if the website's return policy states a 25% restocking fee for canceled orders, the Merchant Center policy should also reflect this.
- Create a separate return policy URL that is not part of the FAQs or terms and privacy. The return policy should be accessible to all users without requiring them to log in, sign up, or provide personal information. It should be a separate landing page to ensure proper recognition by the system.
- Include all necessary details for verifying the return policy. Even if the return policy information in Merchant Center matches the website, the return policy might be rejected if crucial details are missing. The website should clearly outline the handling of returns and refunds, including the timeframe for accepting returns, return methods, return fees, and other relevant information.
- Ensure consistency of return policies throughout the website. The return policy should be consistently displayed across the website, including the footer, returns page, and web banners.
- Set up the return window properly. A return window needs to be established on the return policy in the Merchant Center.
Opportunities to show relevant annotations
- Fast and free Annotations: Display "fast and free" badges on eligible products that meet Google's shipping speed and cost requirements. Learn more about free and fast shipping.
- Same-Day delivery/Next-Day delivery annotations: Showcase same-day delivery options for local and online merchants by setting up same-day delivery shipping services in the Merchant Center.
Note: Same-day delivery for online product listings is only available in Merchant Center classic.