Connect Google Merchant Center

01Before you start

You need a Google account with access to your Merchant Center account (an admin or standard user there), a Pricebeeper account with a confirmed email address, and the owner or admin role in that account. Connections hold credentials, so other team roles can see them but not add them.

If you'd rather share a feed than sign in, the product feed guide shows how to connect your Google Shopping feed by its address. Signing in is simpler and also brings the price benchmark, which a feed can't.

02Step 1: Find your Merchant Center ID

1. 1

   Open Merchant Center

   Sign in to Merchant Center with the Google account you'll connect.

2. 2

   Copy the ID

   Your Merchant Center ID is the number shown at the top of the page, next to your business name, and in the account menu. Copy it.

If you manage several stores in one advanced account, use the ID of the store whose products you want, not the ID of the advanced account above it.

03Step 2: Connect and sign in with Google

1. 1

   Open Connections

   In Pricebeeper, go to Settings, Connections, choose Add connection and pick Google Merchant Center.

2. 2

   Fill in the access details

   Paste your Merchant Center ID. There's nothing else to type: the access comes from signing in.

3. 3

   Choose what each sync does

   Add new products brings in products that aren't in your catalog yet. Update unit costs uses the cost of goods sold you give Google. Use its prices as your own prices uses your price on Google, or the sale price while one runs.

4. 4

   Connect and test

   Choose Connect and test. Pricebeeper signs in, reads the first products and shows them with their codes, barcodes, costs and prices, so you can check them before the full sync runs in the background.

Choose Continue with Google. Google asks you to pick an account and to allow Pricebeeper to see your Merchant Center data. Allow it, and Google sends you back to Pricebeeper, where the first sync starts at once.

04What a sync changes

Each sync reads every product Merchant Center lists and finds the matching product in your catalog: first by product code (SKU), then by barcode (EAN or GTIN). A code or barcode that several of your products share matches none of them, so a duplicate never gets the wrong cost.

• Unit cost replaces the cost Pricebeeper had, when Update unit costs is on. Repricing keeps every suggestion above the margin floor it sets.
• Your own price becomes the price competitors are compared with, when Use its prices as your own prices is on.
• Codes and barcodes fill in where a product had none, which helps Pricebeeper find the exact product at other sellers.
• Products that match nothing are counted and listed on the connection, so you can see what is missing from your catalog.

Products are matched by their offer ID, which is usually your SKU, then by GTIN and page address. A product you sell in several countries appears once per country in Merchant Center; Pricebeeper keeps one product and records the benchmark for each country.

A sync never deletes, renames or moves anything, and it reads only: Pricebeeper writes nothing back to your system. Approved prices reach your store only through a store you connect for repricing.

05Google's price benchmark

For products with enough clicks on Google, Merchant Center reports a benchmark: the average price other merchants charge for the same product in that country, weighted by clicks. Pricebeeper reads it at every sync and shows it on the product page, beside the competitor prices it finds itself.

The benchmark is one number per country, not a list of sellers, so it doesn't raise alerts or move repricing. Use it as a check: when your price sits well above it, look at the competitor offers on the same page to see who undercuts you. Products without enough clicks, and countries Google doesn't report, simply show no benchmark. Competitor pricing explains how Pricebeeper finds each seller's price.

06Step 3: Check the results

The connection shows when it last synced, how many products it read, added and updated, and how many it couldn't match. New products wait under Products, filtered as not monitored: choose the ones to watch and attach them to a region, as the getting started guide explains.

07When a sync fails

After ten failed scheduled syncs in a row a connection pauses itself, so it stops trying with details that no longer work. Fix the setting with Edit, then switch it back on.

Questions people ask