Collection

Collection is available with local inventory ads in all supported countries. The feature is also supported by cost-free local listings in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Ukraine, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, the United States and Vietnam.

Currently, collection is not supported for cost-free local listings in Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden. Contact support if you'd like to change your product page experience by selecting 'Switch to in-store product price and availability hosted on Google' as you fill in the Contact Us form.

Collection 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, collection enables you to use your shops as an omnichannel asset and differentiator. Unlike product pages with in-store availability, collection doesn't require full inventory information.

Your collection setup might also require you to specify a pick-up cost or a minimum order value. Refer to our dedicated Help Centres for more information.

In order to implement collection, you must meet the following requirements:

  • You must be able to identify your shop locations which are eligible to fulfil online orders.
  • You must be able to fulfil click and collect orders or reservations either if the product is currently in stock in your shops or will be available within a defined SLA. The SLA refers to the timeframe within which an item will be available for click and collect.

On this page

Website requirements

To be eligible for collection, your website must meet the following requirements on both desktop and mobile devices, including tablets:

  • Provide options to collect a product: The landing page or the checkout flow must display the option to collect the product on the same day or at a later date. Customers must be able to purchase or reserve a product for collection.
  • Product pages or the checkout flow must clearly display the collection SLA. The SLA refers to the timeframe within which an item will be available for click and collect.
  • Allow customers to select the shop where their order will be available for collection.
  • If charged, display the collection fee: If there are any extra charges for collection (including the minimum order value), they must be clearly displayed. This can be shown on the checkout flow. For a more detailed overview of what constitutes a misrepresentation, consult our misrepresentation policy.
  • Provide collection confirmation: A notification must be sent when the order is ready to be collected (for example, by sending an email or SMS).
  • Show fulfilment options 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.
Note: You can't change your collection experience while your website is being reviewed. The review can take up to a few days, and you'll be notified when it's completed.

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.
    • For example: Provide a 'check out as guest' option.
  • Don't require customers to enter complete address information before showing your fulfilment options.

Data requirements

You can now set up collection SLAs directly within the 'Delivery and returns' section of Merchant Center. Learn more about setting up local collections. Note that the values same_day and next_day are currently not supported by this feature.

In addition to the product data, you must add the following attribute to your data:

Attribute Optional or required Possible values Data source Note
Collection SLA [pickup_sla] Required

same_day
next_day
2-day
3-day
4-day
5-day
6-day
multi-week

Text/tab-delimited example
multi-week

XML example
<g:pickup_sla>multi-week</g:pickup_sla>

Product data or inventory data.

Tip: If available, we recommend adding [pickup_sla] in your inventory data if there are differences between your shops.

Submit the maximum amount of time that it will take for you to fulfil an online order to one of your shops.

If an item is not available for collection, set [pickup_method] to 'not supported'.

Tip: You can set the collection SLA [pickup_sla] to multi-week if the collection SLA on your website changes frequently or differs across your shops.

Submit same day [same_day] in your inventory data for those products that are available in your shops. Note that same day [same_day] only works with in-stock inventories. Learn more about how your in-store products with collection SLAs surface on Google.
Note: Starting on 1 September 2024, you only need to submit the collection SLA [pickup_sla] for your collection setup. The collection method [pickup_method] attribute is now optional, so we recommend not including it.

Select participating Business Profile locations

By default, Google will show local inventory ads in the linked Business Profile location group.

If all of your shop locations are eligible to fulfil online orders, select the Business Profile business 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 business group and ensure that business group is selected either during account linking or by updating your Google Business Profile service under 'Access and services' in the 'Apps and services' tab.

If you're unable to reorganise your shop locations into groups, contact our support team:

  1. Fill in the Contact Us form and select I want to exclude some of my shops from collections.
  2. Under 'Provide a list of shop codes and addresses for your locations that do not offer the option for users to collect their product(s):', specify the shop codes and addresses of the locations that aren't eligible to allow users to collect your products.

Opt in to collection

To enable collection for your shops, follow these steps:

  1. Go to Add-ons in Merchant Center.
  2. In the 'Discover' tab, select Add under the 'Local inventory ads' or 'Cost-free local listings' add-on card.
    • If you've already activated one or both of these add-ons in the past, you will find them under Your add-ons.
  3. On the 'Local inventory ads' or 'Cost-free local listings' card, select Go to local inventory ads or Go to cost-free local listings.
  4. Select Add country to get started with a new country in which you want to show local inventory ads or cost-free local listings.
  5. For an existing country listed, select Review setup status next to the country name.
  6. Add your shops.
    • If you've already completed this step in the past, it can be disregarded.
  7. Expand Collection and product page experience.
  8. To the question, 'Can customers buy or reserve products online to collect in shops?', select Yes.
  9. Add a URL that shows a product available for collection.
  10. To the question, 'Can customers view in-store availability on your product pages?':
    • Select Yes if your product pages show in-store availability.
    • Select No if your product pages don't show in-store availability.
  11. Select Save.

Frequently asked questions

How does collection work?

Since users are able to collect products that they ordered or reserved online in your shops, Google will allow you to advertise those products for each of the shops along with an SLA.

What happens if I submit a collection SLA [pickup_sla] in my product data or within the Delivery and fulfilment section in Merchant Center?

For each product with a provided collection SLA [pickup_sla], Google will generate inventory entries for every shop within your Business Profile location group. Note that these generated inventory entries won't work if the collection SLA that you set is same day [same_day].

Can I advertise products that are marked as 'out of stock' in my primary data source for collection?

No. Products with the availability 'out of stock' in your primary data source aren't eligible for collection.
If you provide a collection SLA [pickup_sla] in your product data or in your local collection policy, we'll only generate eligible inventories if the product's availability is set to 'in stock'. This will allow Google to guarantee that the product can be fulfilled, since collection SLAs that are provided in your product data or in your local collection policy typically indicate that your products need to be brought to your shops for collection at a later date.

By using collection in my Merchant Center account, can I also advertise in-stock inventory?

To promote in-stock inventory, ensure that the product page experience is approved in your local inventory ads or cost-free local listings setup in order to allow customers to discover the in-store availability on your product pages as indicated in our implementation guide.
If you're planning to use the same day [same_day] collection SLA, you will also need to meet this requirement.

What should I do if a few products can't be delivered to all of my shops?

Products that can't be collected from all of the locations in your linked business group aren't eligible for collection. Set the collection method [pickup_method] to 'not supported' for these products in your inventory data to include shop-specific collection SLAs for added flexibility.

Can I submit specific SLAs for different shops?

To submit shop-specific attributes for collection SLA [pickup_sla], you can include shop-specific collection SLAs in your inventory data for added flexibility.
If you submit a collection SLA only in your product data or in your local collection policy, you should set the maximum SLA for all of your shops. This means that if a product is mostly available for collection within three days but for a few shops it can take up to four days, you need to submit the SLA for this product as '4-day'.

Can I use collection and provide collection SLA [pickup_sla] information using inventory data source?

Yes. Using inventory data source provides greater flexibility, and it allows you to use the same day [same_day] value.

Can I submit the necessary attributes for collection using Google's Merchant API?

Yes, the collection SLA [pickup_sla] attribute can be provided at both the product level and the individual shop inventory level.
Submitting the collection SLA [pickup_sla] in your product data source:
To set a default collection SLA [pickup_sla] for a product across all locations, you can include the collection SLA [pickup_sla] attribute directly at the product level. When using the Merchant API, this means including the collection SLA [pickup_SLA] field in the body of your request to the relevant products service method (for example, when creating or updating a product). You can manage which programmes your products are intended for by selecting destinations such as 'local inventory ads' and/or 'cost-free local listings'. For most values (except same_day), Google will also automatically create collection-eligible inventory for your linked shops. Learn more about how your in-store products with collection SLAs surface on Google.
Submitting a collection SLA [pickup_sla] in your inventory data source:
To specify or override the collection SLA for a product at a specific shop, you should use the local inventory capabilities of the Merchant API. When updating or inserting local inventory information for a product, you should include the collection SLA [pickup_sla] attribute along with the required 'shop code'. This allows for granular control, for instance, offering same day [same_day] collection at shops with immediate availability, while other shops might have a different SLA. This is done using methods designed for managing per-shop inventory data (for example, accounts.products.localInventories.insert). An inventory-level collection SLA [pickup_sla] will override any SLA set in the product data source for that specific shop. Note that the 'shop code' field is required. You can add the relevant shop codes within your Business Profile account, or directly from Google Search.
Always refer to the official Google Merchant API developer documentation for the exact field names, supported values for collection SLA [pickup_sla] (for example, same_day, 2-day, multi-week) and method-specific implementation details.

Is there a limit to the number of offers or shops that I can submit for collection with product data?

If the collection 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.

What happens if my quota is exceeded?

Even if the collection attribute has been submitted, not all of your products will be able to create collection inventory automatically when the quota limit has been exceeded.
These products will be identified through the missing inventory issue in the 'Needs attention' page when you set your marketing method to 'All for physical shops'.

What should I do if I suspect that my quota has been exceeded?

If your account has exceeded the quota for the automatically generated collection inventory, our support team will either contact you directly or contact your Google representative.
If your quota has been exceeded, our support team will guide you through the next steps. This may involve removing the collection 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.

Can I use collection in addition to regional availability and pricing?

Yes. You may be using regional availability and pricing to specify the regions where your products are available and control pricing regionally.

Regional availability and pricing and collection with local inventory ads and cost-free local listings are compatible and can be used. Regional availability and pricing and local inventory ads have to be configured separately.

Note: If you're using local inventory ads or cost-free local inventory with shop-specific product pages, the link template [link_template] attribute will be shared between local inventory ads and cost-free local listings if the same product data is used. Automatic inventory creation also requires the product data availability to be 'in stock'.

My Merchant Center account has multiple countries activated for collection. How can I ensure that the offers are only used in the intended countries?

Multiple countries enabled for collection through one Merchant Center account may result in some redundant inventory being created if the Merchant Center account has different product data sources for different countries.
From a serving standpoint, local inventory ads will only surface when there is a local intent or if someone is located near a shop. This is to ensure that shoppers only see the most relevant ads. For this reason, the offers resulting from redundant inventories are rarely exposed to shoppers.
To further ensure that these offers are never used, you can follow the next steps:
Note: If you operate across multiple countries, we recommend using an MCA setup and having a sub-account for each country.

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