Checkout requirements and best practices

You can capture a customer’s interest and get them to select your products, but a sale isn’t final until after checkout. Complete your sales and increase your conversions by providing a high-quality checkout experience for your customers. This article explains Google’s checkout requirements and offers recommendations on how to streamline the checkout experience.

On this page

• Allow everyone to check out
• Provide accurate pricing
• Be consistent with currency
• Use language consistently
• Provide relevant information
• Collect user information responsibly and securely

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Allow everyone to check out

Follow these requirements to meet the checkout needs of businesses and individuals:

• Allow individuals to purchase products. Individuals who aren’t part of a business must still be able to purchase from your online store. This means that business-related fields, such as "company name" or "company ID number," must be optional.
• Ensure product availability matches. The product availability in your product data must match the availability on your product page and checkout pages. If a product is shows as "in stock" in an ad or free listing, it must also show as "in stock" on the product page. Customers must be able to add in-stock products to their cart and finalize their purchase.
• Inform customers about minimum order values. If a minimum value must be met before a purchase is completed or shipped, set that value in your shipping settings. For example, if you require that a customer spends at least $30 USD on your online store to make a purchase, add a corresponding minimum order value to your shipping settings. Learn more about adding a minimum order value.
• Keep account creation barrier-free. You can require customers to create an account to complete a purchase, but the registration must have no added barriers. For example, the account must be free, and must not require an app download or device change to finalize the purchase.
• Support guest checkout. Customers on your online store can check out as guests or verify their details using a mobile or desktop one-time passcode.
• Secure the signup and checkout pages. To protect your customers, you must secure your checkout with a valid SSL certificate. Specifically, you must protect payments, transactions, and all personally identifiable information (such as name, email, physical address, and payment details).
• Verify third-party payment security. Ensure that any third-party payment options are HTTPS-secure and don’t ask for unnecessary personally identifiable information, such as credit check details.
• Ensure product delivery options. Ensure that all products you advertise are available for either door-to-door delivery or collection point shipping in the countries you sell products in. All advertisers active on local inventory ads who also offer in-store pickup on their product page are eligible for store pickup or collection points upon meeting technical requirements. Learn more about Shipping[shipping].

• Understand carrier collection points. Based on the country you sell products in, you can submit the shipping cost to a collection point for specific carriers:
  • Norway and Sweden: PostNord, DHL, Bring, DB Schenker
  • Finland: Posti.fi, DHL, Bring, DB Schenker, Matkahuolto
  • You can submit shipping costs to a collection point or store pickup in Argentina and Chile.

• Use regional availability. If you only sell products in certain locations within a country, or you have different availability per region, use regional availability or exclude regions in your shipping settings. This ensures your product availability at checkout matches the product data in your data source.
• Disclose mandatory fees clearly. Clearly show customers any mandatory fees required to purchase a product.
• Physical goods subscriptions for prescription drugs must clearly disclose if not all customers will be eligible for a prescription or if a medical consultation is required.
  • Any related fees for the medical evaluation, the prescription drug, or bundled services must be clear to customers. The product page must explicitly state what is included, such as "prescription drug only" or a "bundled treatment plan (prescription drug and evaluation). Learn more about recurring billing and subscription cost [subscription_cost]attribute.

Provide accurate pricing

People expect to pay the advertised price for products. If the price of a product advertised in a Shopping ad or free listing is different from the price shown in a customer’s shopping cart, that can create a negative experience for the customer and could result in the loss of a sale.

To ensure that your product's price is clear, meet the following requirements:

• Ensure consistent pricing.The price of your product must be consistent throughout the checkout process, not just between the product data source and your product page. The price must not increase at checkout, but it can be reduced after the product is added to the cart if a promotion is applied.
• Show additional fees clearly. Any additional fees charged during checkout that are not government-imposed must be disclosed in Merchant Center by bundling them with the applicable shipping costs. For example, service fees, handling fees, and carrier-related fees must be included in the total value submitted in the shipping [shipping] attribute or configured using Merchant Center shipping settings.
• Disclose subscription add-ons. For physical goods subscriptions, any additional fees must be disclosed on the product page and checkout page, clearly marking any additional add-on costs for customizations, including required fees.
• Note that government fees must not be included in the product price or shipping.
• Include value-added tax (VAT) where required. Many countries require a value-added tax (VAT), which must be included in your price [price]. Learn more about including value-added tax (VAT) in your price.
• Exclude taxes for the US and Canada. For the US and Canada, don’t include any taxes, such as sales tax, Goods and Services Tax (GST), value-added tax (VAT), or import tax, in the price [price] attribute.
• Follow Colorado retail delivery fee guidelines. For the state of Colorado in the US, don’t include any retail delivery fee in your product data source Therefore, a retail delivery fee must not be included in shipping [shipping], price [price], or any other attribute. Learn more about Colorado retail delivery fee.
• Manage shipping costs separately. Shipping costs are submitted separately, either in your product data source or at the account level. Note that product data source-level rates will override account-level settings. You can overestimate shipping rates in the Merchant Center as long as they're not higher on your online store at checkout.
• Set up minimum basket free shipping. If you require a minimum order value for a customer to qualify for free shipping, set up your shipping settings at the account level and use the "free shipping over a certain amount" option.
• Handle minimum basket surcharges. If you charge a minimum order value surcharge on top of the shipping cost, make sure the surcharge is included in your shipping settings. It's recommended to use the range-based shipping setup.
• Ensure compliant collection points. Collection points must be third-party locations, accessible to other businesses, and in close proximity to a customer's location. Parcel lockers are a common type of collection point.

Minimum advertised pricing (MAP) agreements:

If you sell products with minimum advertised pricing (MAP) agreements, meet the following guidelines:

• Submit the MAP value as the price. If you sell the product for less than the price allowed by third-party agreements, submit the MAP value as the price [price] attribute in your product data source.
• Show the MAP price on your product page. You can show that you charge a lower price at checkout by adding clarifying text to your product pages. For example, you can show a note, such as "Add to cart for final price", and show the MAP value crossed out or grayed out. The MAP price in your product data source must show on your product page. Learn more about product page requirements.
• Include the MAP price in microdata. If you use microdata annotations on your online store, also include the MAP price.

Be consistent with currency

Unless you have currency conversion enabled in your product source, your product pages must show the currency for the country you sell products in. All pages from the product page to the checkout page must consistently show the same currency. Learn more About currency conversions.

Use language consistently

You should use the same language in the product data source, and on your product page or product performance may be limited.

You must use the same language in your product data source and throughout the checkout process to avoid product disapproval. For example, if you sell products in Canada, you can use English or French, but whichever language is used to upload the product data source must match the language used throughout the checkout process.

When key elements such as title, description, and variant details, don't match the language in your product data source, your products may have limited performance. This is because the details provided won’t match customer search terms and expectations in that language. If the majority of your product details don’t match the product data source language, your products may be disapproved.

Elements of the checkout process that allow customers to navigate and make an informed purchase decision must be in the same language as your product data source language.

Relevant pages include (but aren't limited to):

• Shopping cart
• Checkout
• Terms and conditions
• Refund and return policy
• About (including your contact details)

Learn more about Supported languages and currencies.

Provide relevant information

Make sure that relevant details are clearly accessible throughout the checkout process, and that customers can find refund and return policy information, terms and conditions, and how to contact you. You must provide customers with a way to contact you on your website some examples include a “contact us” form, a link to your business profile on social media, an email address, or a phone number.

Omission of relevant information is considered a misrepresentation. Failure to comply with policy requirements can result in your Shopping ads and free listings being disapproved or your account suspended.

Collect user information responsibly and securely

During the checkout process, collect only the details that are necessary to process the order. For example, a company name must not be required for customer sales. However, some countries may require the buyer to provide a national ID. These requirements vary by country. Learn more about Irresponsible data collection and use.

Handle customer details with care. Your website's primary purpose must not be to collect customer personal details. Make sure to meet these requirements:

• Secure personal details. Collect personal details, such as credit card numbers, securely on an SSL-protected page.
• Don’t sell contact details. Don’t sell customer contact details.
• Obtain consent for ads. Don't use customer personal details or images in ads without consent.