Title

Google Merchant Center Sync — Full Catalogue and Unpublished Product Management

Summary

Two improvements to the Google Merchant Center sync: a fix ensures the full product catalogue is synced, and a new optional setting automatically marks unpublished products as out of stock in Google Merchant Center.

Problem

When products were unpublished in the Infigo storefront, their Google Merchant Center listings remained visible as in stock for up to 30 days before Google auto-expired them.

Environment

Google Merchant Center plugin settings in the MIS Plugins section of the Infigo administration panel.

Resolution

1. Log in to the administration panel.
2. Navigate to Connect Plugins and open the Google Merchant settings.
3. To enable marking unpublished products as out of stock, locate the Mark unpublished products as out of stock setting and turn it on.
   1. 
4. Save the settings. The change takes effect on the next sync run.

Note: The pagination fix applies automatically and requires no configuration.

Verification

1. Enable the Mark unpublished products as out of stock setting in the plugin settings.
2. Unpublish a product and run another sync. Verify the product is marked as out of stock in Google Merchant Center.
3. Re-publish the product and run another sync to confirm the product returns to in-stock status.

Search Terms

Google Merchant Center sync, GMC full catalogue, products missing from Google Merchant, sync more than 100 products, Google Merchant pagination fix, unpublished product out of stock, mark out of stock Google Merchant, Google Merchant plugin settings, GMC listing not updated, product sync not complete, merchant center availability, out of stock unpublished products GMC

In order to use the Google Tag Manager you need to ensure you follow these steps:

•  Create a Google Tag Manager account
•  If required, you can download and import the example container JSON attached. Just amend the account ID to your own account ID before importing (gtm.json) this will create 4 tags for you

Affiliate Window Tag

TagServe HTML Tag

TagServe Tag

TradeDoubler Tag

• Navigate to Admin (In your Google Tag Manager account) then Import Container - here you can choose to overwrite which will amend all the account and container IDs with your own.
• Now when you navigate to your Tags under the Container section you should see your newly created tags.
• You will now need to go into each and ensure that the IDs used are correct for your account with each. At this point, you can also delete any that you do not require.
• Along with the created user-defined variables you can create your own, depending on the Affiliate Tag: 
• User-defined variables are set in Catfish and are mapped to:

OrderId: Catfish Order Id

OrderTotal: Catfish Order Total

OrderShipping: Catfish Order Shipping

OrderTax: Catfish Order Tax

StorefrontName: Catfish Storefront Name

Products: A list of catfish order line items based on Quantity and Unit Price Including Tax

CheckSum: Checksum Value based on Catfish Order ID and Catfish Order Total

TduId: TradeDoubler unique ID from cookie (specific per customer)

• You can also configure the trigger when the tag will be triggered: 
• Now in Infigo, you need to navigate to Configuration > Settings > General Settings > Tab 'Google Tag Manager Settings'

• Check the 'Enable Google Tab Manager' setting

• Enter your Container ID in the 'Google Tag Manager ID' field. (This should look something like - GTM-XXXXXXXX)

This article aims to cover the integration of Google Analytics onto a storefront. Google Analytics allows for the tracking and reporting of website traffic and can determine the success of a storefront based on the figures received.

Pre-requisites: You will need to have an existing Google Account to allow for successful integration of this tool.

Step One

1) Search for 'Google Analytics' within a web browser and select the first option that appears. You will be subsequently asked to select your Google Account and follow the appropriate steps, shown on-screen.

 The above screen capture depicts the three primary steps that are to be followed, in order to integrate the Google Analytics tool.

Step Two

2) Following the selection of 'Sign-Up', you will then be directed to the following screen (depicted below) this allows you to assign an account name, website name, as well as the URL for your storefront. For the purpose of this example, i have inserted my own name as the 'Account Name', 'Storefront Example' as the website name and inserted the URL for my storefront.

Depicted above is the necessary completing of fields that will allow for the obtaining of a Tracking ID. Note that all three fields are required.

Ensure that the pre-selected options found at the bottom of the current page (those that are marked as 'recommended') remain unchanged and select 'Get Tracking ID'. Accept the Terms and Conditions and you will arrive at the screen shown below.

Step Three

3) Now that you are on the current screen (shown at the conclusion of the previous stage) you will need to copy the code, shown under the 'Global Site Tag', and paste this within the 'PageHeadContainer' found via navigating: Admin --> Configuration --> Settings --> Product and Editor Settings --> Infigo Settings

It is worth noting that, should you wish to view traffic, you will need to always open Google Analytics in a new tab - as this is where you will view the traffic (as opposed to the Dashboard on Catfish).

Step Four/Testing

In order to test that the integration has been successful, the status - located adjacent to the Tracking ID will change in value based on the number of visitors to the storefront. This can be replicated via impersonating a user.

Note: You will only be able to view traffic afterthe installation of the Google Analytics tool. Therefore viewing traffic numbers, prior to this, will not be possible.

 If you have followed the steps above correctly, you will now be able to monitor the customer traffic on your storefront.

We have added a new MIS plugin for Google Merchant. Now you can configure a synchronization process or upload manually the generated XML from your products and attribute combinations, including the images and descriptions into your Google Merchant account quickly and easily.

**There are steps that require assistance from the Support Team, please be sure to include the following information in your ticket when setting up Google Merchant:

• Request to have access to MIS Plugins and MIS Settings
• Request to have access to Widgets
• The Platform URL from Step 3

1. Signup for Google Merchant. 

2. You need to validate your URL. We will do this with an HTML Tag. In Catfish, navigate to Content Management > Widgets > Google Analytics > Add to zone. 

A. Copy the HTML Tag from the Google Merchant setup:

B. On the Google Analytics Widget, Paste the HTML tag into the Tracking code with {ECOMMERCE} line in Catfish:

Press Save.

In Tracking code with {ECOMMERCE} line, here is an example: 

<meta name="google-site-verification" content="T7GJisRvNBj6i5FCaX101OpkysDfMwfz2IE!_JXg"/>

For Tracking code {ECOMMERCE} part, with {DETAILS} line and Tracking code for {DETAILS} part sections, these need to always be left blank. 

C. Now you can press Verify URL in Google Merchant: 

Press Finish after you see the URL is verified. 

3. Infigo needs to install Google Merchant into your MIS Plugins. Please provide the Platform URL where you need this installed. After Infigo has installed the plugin, navigate to Catfish > Other > MIS Settings and enable Google Merchant. Please proceed to Step 4 after these steps have been taken. 

4. You will need an Authentication Key from Google Merchant. Navigate to Content API:

A. Go to Authentication

B. Create a New API Key

 C. A new content-api-key.json file will be created. Be sure to save this. Now you need to create a new Authentication User. Click on the new user just created:

D. Now you need to create a new authentication key:

E. Select Key Type as JSON. Select Create and a JSON file will be downloaded. 

F. Navigate to Catfish > Other > MIS > MIS Plugins. Press Configure against Google Merchant. You will need to insert the Merchant Store ID. The ID can be found on the Google Merchant homepage for your site:

Paste the ID into Catfish:

Next paste in the Merchant Center JSON file (From Step 4E) you downloaded into Key:

Press Save. 

By default, your settings will be set to automatically sync your google merchant account with your storefront. It will be set to 24hrs for the auto sync interval, you can change this.

5. Add a target country, under Targets. The press Save to have the download xml appear. This will allow you to download the XML for English Language (Or which ever language you choose). 

After all of these steps are completed, your Google Merchant account will now start communicating with Catfish. Please allow up to 2 hours for products to start syncing. You will see your products on Google Merchant under Products > List.

Google Merchant Settings

Adding a Product Title and Description for an Attribute Combination

Navigate to the Attribute Combinations, and press MIS Configure

Then you type in your Title and Description:

You can also setup shipping methods in Google Merchant

https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/6069284?hl=en

Manually Syncing Products using XML

Please visit this article here after you have setup Google Merchant. 

After you have completed setting up Google Merchant, you have the option to manually sync your products to Google Merchant. 

1. First, we need to get the XML from Google Merchant configuration page in Catfish:

2. In Google Merchant, open go to Products > Feeds

3. Press Add

4. Select a country and a language:

5. Give your feed a name, then choose Upload for the input method:

6. Be sure to name your feed file EXACTLY like the one you downloaded. Choose Upload a file now

7. Your manually uploaded feed will appear in Google Merchant under Products > Feeds. 

8. Your products will then appear in your list, please allow up to 2 hours for this to occur. Please note that all products will be added, regardless if they meet the criteria (An image and pricing).