Today, we’re rolling out a series of updates across the Google Shopping Merchant API ecosystem. These include adjustments to reflect the latest Shopping markup changes, and improvements that ensure more accurate, consistent, and reliable data delivery through our API.
Key changes
1 We’ve added two new parameters across the Task POST and Task GET of Product Info and Sellers endpoints, and to the Products Task GET endpoint:
➤ data_docid string – a unique identifier of the SERP data element, a dynamic value assigned by Google.
➤ gid string – a new global product identifier on Google Shopping, also a dynamic value assigned by Google; it serves as a link between product entities and their associated reviews and ratings data. You can retrieve the gid for any product from the Google Shopping Products endpoint. Learn more in our Help Center article.
The gid value can now be specified instead of the existing product identifiers when creating tasks in Product Info and Sellers endpoints. In this way, we maintain compatibility for existing integrations while allowing newer implementations to adopt the new ID format.
2 The Reviews endpoint now supports task creation only by specifying a gid. Other identifiers are no longer accepted for new review tasks. This change ensures accurate product–review mapping in line with Google’s recent updates to Shopping, where reviews are now linked through global identifiers instead of product IDs.
3 A new specifications array has been added to the product_info object in the Product Info results. It replaces Product Specification, consolidating data and reducing redundancy. You can now access all product details from a single endpoint.
Deprecation notices
➤ The Product Specification endpoint has been retired. All specification data is now available within Product Info. If you have previously set any tasks to Product Specification and have not collected them yet, you can still do so using the Task GET endpoint. However, please note that new tasks are no longer accepted, use the Product Info endpoint to retrieve the specifications data instead.
➤ All HTML endpoints in Google Shopping Merchant API are now closed, except for the Products HTML endpoint.
Actions required
- Review the updated Google Shopping API documentation to take a closer look at the changes in the endpoints you’re using.
- Make sure to support task creation via
gidif you need to collect reviews. - Adjust your system to retrieve
specificationsfrom the Product Info endpoint instead of the old Specification endpoint. - Remove any dependencies on the deprecated HTML endpoints.
To sum up
These updates strengthen the accuracy and consistency of Google Shopping data and streamline how product and review information is managed.
We encourage you to review your integration to stay aligned with these changes and continue obtaining accurate and reliable data from the Shopping marketplace.
If you have any questions or need help adapting your setup, don’t hesitate to contact our support team. We’re always here for you.