Google Free Local Product Listings Setup Confusion

[wordhorde]

I set up the Square Google Free Local Product Listings following the Square instructions, however, on my Google Merchant Center page, under Local Inventory Ads Setup - Product Data, it shows "Action Required."  When I select that, it shows a checkmark next to Upload a Primary Feed indicating that it is complete, but, in addition, it has a link to Upload Local Product Inventory Feed.  I can't find this in any of the instructions. What am I missing?

[puritykingdom78]

I had that issue before. Usually with Google, it will say it’s missing the Gender, Size, Brand, Age fields. Once you update those on the Channel Library page, then your listings will show accurately on Google. You may need to sort them by Suggested or recommended changes. I’ve had items disapproved but they still feed to Google’s free listing. I hope this helps. Maybe one of the Square experts may have a faster way to update this. I have over 8000 items so it takes a while to get through them all. 

[wordhorde]

That's a different issue... I have that too on some items.  This is Google wanting a separate Local Product Inventory Feed.  And now it seems to be progressively disapproving all of my inventory items because of "missing inventory data" due to not having this feed.

"Products disapproved for “missing inventory data” are products that do not have corresponding inventory data in your local product inventory feed."

Google wants me to either upload an inventory feed or submit through the Content API.  I thought having the Square integration meant we didn't have to upload feeds, and I have no idea how to "submit through the Content API."

This is incredibly frustrating. Hopefully someone at Square can offer some guidance with this process as to what I am missing.

[wordhorde]

Does anyone at Square regularly monitor issues posted here, or is my only option for getting help with this to call Tech Support?  This process is beyond frustrating.

[_Violet]

Hi there, @wordhorde - I'm sorry to hear that this issue with your Google Product Listings has brought you to the Seller Community 😞

For support with Google Product Listings or Google Shopping, you have a few options: 
 

• Visit the Google Merchant Center Help for information on setting up, troubleshooting, or best practices
• Browse the Google Ads Community
• Contact Google directly via Google's Contact Us form

I hope this information is helpful but please do let me know if you have any additional questions.

[wordhorde]

I'm sorry, but that's not helpful.  My problem is with the Square integration with Google Free Local Product Listings.  Google is indicating that an additional feed is necessary, and Square's instructions say nothing about this.  If I have to regularly manually upload a feed, then Square is not actually integrated.  The only other option was using Google API, which should then fall on Square to connect me.

[bbsd]

I am also curious about this! Is this for the inventory self verification? I'm confused about that as well. 

[wordhorde]

The Inventory Self Verification was a whole separate nightmare.  Google eventually approved mine, but it crashed so much during the process (possibly partly to do with my terrible internet connection at the store), that I only got about 80% finished and had several days of emails back and forth with Google support on how to fix it.  I guess they decided it was easier to just approve it then to figure out what went wrong.  There should be a button you click to request a time from Google for the self verification, but I'm sorry, I can't recall where it is in the setup process.

[bbsd]

Look into Pointy by Google. Maybe that will be easier than having the Square integration ... although Pointy IS integrated with the POS, so honestly I'm not sure what the difference is with going through Google/Square vs using Pointy (maybe one of the Square reps will see this and can answer). Since setting up Pointy it's brought in some local traffic!

[FarmerFriend]

I'm also having issues with setting up local listings. I've used Square's integration with google to get the accounts talking and have products appearing on google (just not local listings). I hit the button to request inventory verification but I get an error saying "Google requires that your business has inventory in stock before requesting inventory verification. Please make sure to have at least one product with inventory in stock synced with Google before requesting inventory verification." I'm so confused because the products appearing on google (as well as my square online store) have synced inventory in stock. Has anyone else had this issue??

[_Violet]

Hi @FarmerFriend - I'm sorry to hear that this issue with your Google Local Product Listings has brought you to the Seller Community.

If this is your first time settings this up, I recommend reviewing the requirements listed here. If you're still having trouble after that, please reach out to Support directly by logging into your Square account and heading here for further assistance. Then, our team can take a look and get a better idea of what's going on.

I hope this helps!

[Twpchair]

Unfortunately, this has happened more times than I can count! For my retail furniture store, it seems that Google is consistently about 20 to 30 days behind. By the time everything is set and working on their end, 75% of the items are already sold! This leads to a lot of unhappy potential customers. After multiple attempts to contact Google, I was told by one representative that the delays were due to the “free” version of their service. He tried to convince me that the paid version would be much faster, but he couldn't specify what "faster" really meant in terms of hours or days. As a result, I stopped using it. Now, I just post pictures of the store every couple of weeks, but I'm not sure how long I'll continue that.

Our hours on Google fluctuate from 24 hours a day to 8 AM - 9 PM. I have zero issues with other social media platforms, whether they are free or paid; they all work great with Square. However, Google has become a nightmare for me. It's frustrating because we have around 49,000 users who have utilized it to find us or to check out our new picture posts. Good luck to anyone facing similar issues; I hope they figure something out soon. Again, that has been my experience. I hate to call out a company, but I will share my experience honestly. 

[JadenRR]

This is a common issue while setting up Google Local Inventory Ads (LIA) via Square, and it highlights a potential gap in Square's documentation or a misunderstanding of Google Merchant Center's requirements.

[abfabhb]

This is a problem. I have it, too. Somehow, there is a lag on the inventory reporting from whatever feed google is being sent. Not only that, but it ends up with a double-reporting of the effected items. One that is "in stock" with a zero quantity, and another that is "not in stock" with the number available. There is an issue with the api but square's support structure is so poor that nobody i have spoken with - after 4 hours or so trying to fix this - has access to the actual feed to verify if the structure and data being sent on the local feed are correct.