This guide is applicable to those using either the Legacy version or the New version of Intuitive Shipping.
Google Merchant Center is a great way to increase the exposure of your store and your products by making them accessible across various Google platforms. Customers can see everything about your products – including the cost of delivery.
There may be times when Google does not allow your shipping rates to be listed due to non-compliance. This occurs when the actual shipping rates returned by Intuitive Shipping are higher than the delivery price listed by Google.
Why Google Considers Higher Shipping Rates Non-Compliant
According to the Google Merchant Center Help Site, shipping cost is the most common reason why customers abandon purchases. As such, Google does not want to be seen as displaying misleading pricing information to potential customers. For example, Google might list your product with a $49.00 delivery price, but a customer may be quoted $65.00 when they go to your site to purchase the item and decide not to purchase.
The onus is on you, the merchant, to ensure that the shipping rates on your Shopify site match the delivery prices added to and displayed by Google Merchant Center. When they don’t, Google states:
“If there is a discrepancy between the shipping cost on your website and the shipping cost you submit to Merchant Center, the cost submitted to Merchant Center needs to be the greater of the two.”
Google Merchant Center Help/ About Shipping Settings – How It Works
That means if the actual shipping costs being returned by Intuitive Shipping on your site are higher than what is being listed by the Merchant Center, Google will consider your shipping costs to be non-compliant with their terms of service.
How To Resolve Non-Compliant Shipping Costs
To ensure that shipping costs returned by Intuitive Shipping are always lower than those listed on the Merchant Center, contact Merchant Center Customer Service or your Google Rep and ask for instructions on how to inflate Merchant Center shipping costs (delivery prices).
For more information on setting up shipping on Google Merchant Center, go here.