If you use a partner who can provide your order tracking history data, you have the option to link your Merchant Center account directly to your partner account, which will allow Google to use that data to calculate delivery speeds for you that vary depending on a user's location and which of your items they're considering. Learn more about order tracking signals.
When you begin providing order tracking history, you'll be opted in to 'automatic delivery improvements', a feature that allows Google AI to calculate delivery speeds for all of your offers across eligible countries and listing types. If our delivery models verify that your product could be delivered more quickly to a given user than what you've configured within Merchant Center or your feeds, we'll show the improved delivery speed.
On this page
- Benefits
- How it works
- Eligibility
- How Google uses the data
- Link a partner directly from your partner's website
Benefits
- Clarity and accuracy: Manually configured delivery speeds are often overly conservative because they typically take the most remote locations into account, resulting in a wide range of delivery times, for example, 3 to 10 days. In general, Google-calculated delivery speeds are determined by the customer's location, like postcode or state, often making them more precise, for example, three to five days. More accurate delivery times, especially when faster, typically lead to better conversion and purchase rates.
- Delivery annotation: This data can be used to validate your delivery settings, which qualifies you for the 'fast and free' badge and similar delivery annotations.
How it works
Once you link your Merchant Center account with a partner, Google will be able to calculate delivery speeds on your behalf. Through your linked account, Google will pull historical order tracking data for your existing offers to calculate customised delivery speeds specific to your business. If we predict a shorter delivery speed, we'll show that to your customers instead of what you've configured in Merchant Center or your feeds.
Eligibility
To link your partner, you need to:
- Have a Merchant Center account. Find out more about getting started with Merchant Center.
- Deliver to US customers.
- Use the partners ShipStation, Simprosys or Manhattan Associates.
Note: If you're a partner and would like to be added to our list, complete this interest form.
How Google uses the data
Order tracking history data includes:
- Order information, including order ID, order creation time, delivery postcode and regional code
- Delivery cost charged to the buyer
- Delivery information, including the carrier, tracking number, origin, destination and delivery times for each delivery associated with the order
- Order line item information, including the products in the order
Not all of the information listed above is required. In addition, we won't retrieve customer names or exact addresses. You'll have the best results if the order tracking history data that you or your partner submits includes all orders from your website (for example, the site that Google directs your traffic to). It's OK to include a mix of different user-selected service levels like 'free delivery' and 'overnight'. Google will attempt to separate those in its modelling. However, avoid including order sources that aren't representative of your website; for example, marketplaces that require 2-day delivery on most orders. If, on your partner's platform, you don't have control over which order sources you send to Google, it's likely that Google and your partner have already worked together to resolve any issues.
Note that the data that you submit will also be used to make Google's proprietary machine learning models better for all retailers, including your business. But we'll never share your data with any other retailer, outside of aggregated, anonymised benchmarks. Learn more about Google's Privacy Policy.
Link a partner directly from your partner's website
Learn more about how to initiate the process from supported partners:
Once you have initiated the account linking process from your partner's website, you'll be redirected to Merchant Center. Sign in, if not already, and proceed to connect your Merchant Center account to the delivery partner. You'll be redirected to the partner's website to complete the linking process. Once the account is linked, you'll find your partner's name appear as connected in the left navigation menu under Settings in 'Access and services' under the 'Apps and services' tab.