Google Merchant Center: How to Setup Data Sources for Product Listing

Overview

As the owner of an online store, visibility is everything. Google Merchant Center (GMC) is one of the most powerful tools to showcase your products across Google’s ecosystem — including Google Ads, Google Shopping, Google Search, and YouTube. For many ecommerce businesses, it’s a key driver of qualified traffic and sales.

If your store depends on GMC for product visibility, keeping your listings compliant with Google’s requirements is essential. Only approved products are eligible for full visibility, which directly impacts how often and where your listings appear across Google’s platforms.

According to Google’s official documentation, merchants using Shopify, WooCommerce, or PrestaShop — platforms with built-in GMC integrations — benefit from automatic product updates once their store is linked to GMC.

For Odoo users, the release of Odoo v19 introduces a native connector for Google Merchant Center. Once your Odoo shop is linked, product data can be synced automatically to Google, allowing your products to appear in Google Shopping and other surfaces.

To maintain accuracy and trust, Google verifies that the information in your Merchant Center feed matches what’s displayed on your website — including product titles, prices, and shipping costs. To do this, Google uses automated crawlers, often called StoreBot, which simulate user interactions on your site: adding products to the cart, proceeding to checkout, and validating pricing and shipping information. These test interactions sometimes appear in your order list as abandoned orders from “John Smith” or similar names, using email addresses from the domain @storebotmail.joonix.net (for example, johnsmith004@storebotmail.joonix.net).

Because GMC setup and compliance can be complex, this article focuses on one of the most important first steps to ensure your listings are approved and visible: how to set up your data sources with Odoo. We’ll also explain how to resolve one of the most common issues Odoo merchants face — product listings marked as “Limited” instead of “Approved.”

Setting Up the Primary Data Source – Product Data

Setup in Google Merchant Center

Your primary data source in Google Merchant Center (GMC) is the foundation of your product listings. It contains the essential product information such as titles, prices, and availability that Google uses to display your products across its platforms.

For a detailed walkthrough on how to set up your product data source in GMC, refer to the article Manage your data sources. This section summarizes the most important setup steps and data requirements for Odoo users.

Product Data Specification

Google requires specific attributes for all online stores, depending on your country and product category. Below is a summary of the key fields you should verify in your data source file or URL. This is based on the more detailed article from GMC - Product Data Specification.

Required Product Data

Basic product data

• id
• title
• description
• link
• image_link

Price and availability

• availability
• price

Optional but Recommended Fields

Product categorization

• google_product_category

Recommended for Google Ads campaigns to provide more accurate targeting than Google’s automatic categorization.

Shipping details

Shipping information is required for most countries, for both paid and free listings. It’s best to provide coverage for all your customer regions. Include the following attributes for each shipping zone:
• country
• region or postal_code
• service – e.g., “Post Regular” or your courier name
• price
• max_handling_time or shipping_handling_business_days
• max_transit_time or shipping_transit_business_days

Updating the Data Source via Odoo

If you’re connecting your Odoo (v19+) store to GMC, use the File (URL) option when creating your primary feed. Copy the feed link generated by the Odoo GMC connector, which typically follows this format: https://yourdomain.com/gmc.xml. This XML file is dynamically generated by Odoo and structured according to Google’s requirements.

By using this URL-based method, Google automatically fetches your latest product data daily. Any updates made in Odoo—such as new products, price changes, or updated shipping rates—will be reflected automatically in GMC during the next scheduled fetch.

Performance Considerations and Troubleshooting

While this setup works seamlessly for some stores, issues can arise for businesses with large catalogs or complex shipping setups. One common issue is that the /gmc.xml feed takes too long to load. This delay often occurs because Odoo calculates shipping options dynamically, sending multiple requests to carrier APIs. If your store has many shipping methods or regional rules, these computations can slow down feed generation.

If you encounter this issue:
• Review your Odoo shipping configuration to reduce real-time calculations.
• Consider caching the shipping data or using precomputed rates.
• Contact your Odoo implementation partner for optimization assistance.

Setup Supplemental Data Source – Local Inventory Data

Physical Stores and Inventory Data

If you run a brick-and-mortar store beside your online shop, Local Inventory Data in GMC helps Google run Local Inventory Ads and show free local listings to potential buyers who are near your local stores. For more details, refer to this article from GMC.

In GMC, the local inventory data is managed by Supplemental Sources. While your primary data source contains general product data (title, price, description), the supplemental data source provides store-specific details such as stock levels, store codes, and local pricing.

GMC Product’s “Limited” Status

A common issue when connecting your physical and online stores to GMC is that your products on GMC show the status “Limited” after being reviewed by Google. To troubleshoot, navigate to the Needs Attention tab in Products & Stores → Products in GMC and address the problems listed there.

One issue you might encounter in GMC is “Missing Inventory Data” This issue is caused directly by missing local inventory information.

One Solution

With the correct setup (refer to How to upload your local inventory data to Merchant Center), you can have Google automatically crawl your online store for the local inventory data.

Another Solution

Another solution, which requires a bit more technical expertise, involves using Google Tag Manager. This approach uses the website-reported autofeed.

Odoo v19 Connector Limitation

The current Odoo v19 connector to GMC does not support a separate local inventory data feed, so the above are your solutions to the local inventory data issue if customization is not an option.

Adding Local Inventory Data to Supplemental Sources

Another option is to add the local inventory data directly into the GMC Supplemental Sources. Similar to the product data in the primary source, you can use the File (URL) method to add the link generated for the XML file containing your local inventory data. It is important to note that, since the local inventory data depends on your product data, you should upload and configure the sync of the local inventory data after the product data has been uploaded or synced. This ensures that the automatic updates are successful.

Data Specification

Below is a summary of the required fields for the local inventory data feed. This summary is based on the GMC documentation on Local Inventory Data Specification.

• id – the product ID also used in the product data feed

• store_code

• availability

• pickup_sla

When to Seek Help

For most stores, linking Odoo and GMC through the URL method is straightforward. However, if you handle complex product types, manage a large inventory, or experience connection or loading issues, professional support may save significant time.

If you need help optimizing your Odoo–GMC integration or resolving approval issues, our team can assist with configuration, feed performance, and compliance checks.

Book your consultation → to get personalized support for your setup.