Missing sub attribute country attribute of shipping issue?
Are you facing that latest issue that's been rolled out by Google?
So Google has rolled out recently, from the April 27 onwards, they updated the Google
Merchant's guidelines, to want you to submit more specific information.
If you're using this attribute shipping, this is how it looks like.
If you have seen this error.
In this video, I'm going to explain to you exactly what is this attribute issue?
What are you facing and what you can do to resolve it so you can get all your products
approved and shown on Google Shopping.
Hi, I'm Clarice Lin, the ROI Doctor who helps small businesses and online stores get more
traffic and sales by getting on Google and YouTube page one, if you're new to this channel,
you might also want to check out my other videos that's related to this video, the recent
announcement to Google Merchant Center on product identifiers, you can check out this
video right here.
So you don't have product identifiers issue.
Or if you have availability date issue coming up that's been announced.
That's where you can check on my Google availability, date settings on how to set it up correctly,
so your products will not be penalized by Google.
And you can continue to get free traffic from Google Shopping listings.
To make sure that you get your products and your Google Merchant Account approved, you
want to really understand a bit more about Google and their business objectives.
Essentially, Google wants you as the merchant to be providing the most accurate, the most
amount of information available for customers to make the right choice so that they can
trust you and they want to buy from you.
As long as you fulfill those criteria or those information that Google has requested.
There is no reason why your products will be disapproved.
Google's ultimate long term objective is they want shoppers or customers to think of going
to Google Shopping, when they want to buy a product rather than choosing to go to Amazon
right now to do their product research.
In order for that to happen.
Google is constantly updating that guidelines for Google Merchant Center to make sure that
you as the store owner continues to provide the most amount of information needed for
them to provide Google users a great shopping experience.
What is this missing sub attribute country issue about?
Essentially this has to do with this attribute called shipping.
Shipping is a very important piece of information that Google wants you to be providing, whether
it is how much it costs for people, to ship a product to buy a specific product, like
if your shipping cost is based on the weight and size based on the amount that you spend
Google wants that all to be really transparent.
And also, how much time does it take for the product to eventually arrive at your customer's
door, from the handling, the processing?
Like how long does the customer have to wait, you have to provide all of this information
to Google.
So Google can show all this correct information to the customers.
So customers will not get a shock, they want to see some form of consistency so they can
trust you.
If they click on your product that's showing on Google Shopping and they see a different
shipping prices or shipping delivery time that's different on Google Shopping and your
store, then they're going to feel that they're going to be cheated.
So there's no trust.
And Google wants to work together with you to provide this trust and transparency.
So you have to read Google's guidelines really carefully to make sure you don't have this
error.
And the basis of this missing attribute missing sub attribute country.
Essentially under the shipping attribute itself, there is a certain number of information that
you need to provide there is up to four pieces of information you can provide in this shipping
column.
And one of it is compulsory it's because you haven't provided the information itself country
in this particular attribute, which is the compulsory value, then that's why it's throwing
up this error.
It might sound a bit fluff to you right now.
But I'm going to show you more details when we head on to the computer so I can show you
exactly what is the expected format and value that you should be submitting to Google.
We are on the Google Merchant Center help page.
This shows the latest product data spec update announced on April 27.
And what we want to talk about today is the provide shipping country sub attribute update.
There are some stores which have been affected by these updates because you are using the
shipping attributes.
That means that there is a certain information you need to provide when providing, when sending
the shipping attribute update to Google Merchant Center.
So you need to provide a country to make sure that the shipping prices are accurate.
Typically this error happens on the product or item level, so there'll be individual products
that Google will tell you what's happening to them.
We'll be able to see more of this information when you go to the Diagnostics page on your
Google Merchant Center to look at specific products, like what are the issues, usually,
I will recommend you as a store owner, to use this attribute wherever possible, try
to minimize the complexity of shipping costs or handling costs as much as possible, you
can update all of this in the Settings page, on the shipping setup at the top right hand
corner of your Google Merchant Center.
However, because you might be offering different products, and there are certain products that
you have to take into account the weight of the products, so the shipping cost could be
based on the weights or the dimensions of your product, and it might cost you more to
send to the customers.
So you might need to use these attributes, you have to make sure your information is
all fully filled up.
I want to show you what you can do specifically to address this issue.
If your shipping cost is determined by either the weight of your product, or the dimensions
of your product, and you put in this information in Shopify store, if you have a Shopify store,
or if you have a WooCommerce store, then you need to head to the individual level shipping
on the shop, shipping field of the individual products, as you put in the weight of the
product, remember to check this box shipping, check this box, this is a physical product.
For any products eligible to be on Google Shopping, Google has clearly outlined that
any products need to be a physical product.
So you need to make sure that this is a physical product in order for the shipping cost to
be calculated as well.
So make sure this box is checked.
Once you have checked the box and you have put down the weight.
If you're using weights or the dimensions, then save this information.
And this information will be automatically synced up to Google Merchant Center if you
have set up an automated shopping feed.
If you're using more complex methods of calculating your shipping and delivery turnaround time,
then this is the attribute information you need to click on and learn more about.
Let's click here and find out.
Perfect, now we are on this shipping information page.
Google has outlined what is the information needed.
So although this is a single attribute, you need to put in multiple pieces of information
that summarizes the shipping speed of how long the product will take to arrive on your
customer's doorstep and what's the total costs of getting this product excluding the sales
price.
So in this case, Google has outlined that if you need to override your shipping settings
for specific products that are bulky or fragile in nature, then this will be the attribute
for you to use to override the general cost.
And Google has also clearly defined what does it mean by shipping costs charged by a carrier
or other costs directly related to shipping.
So if it's anything to do with handling, delivery and the logistics, and delivery company that
you're using, or if it includes any cross border charges, all of these falls under shipping
costs.
And if there's any insurance costs, shipping costs should also take that into consideration.
Of course, shipping costs also includes like how fast they are going to take like regular
shipping costs, or if they want it to be next day delivery, quicker delivery time.
So maybe there's additional costs.
So you want to add that to the customers when the customers want the product as quickly
as possible.
And you need to also put in the handling time when the orders being placed when it's being
fulfilled.
So you want to put all of this information under shipping, speed and costs.
One of the reasons why Google really prioritizes it is, the users or buyers use shipping costs
and delivery speed to be one of their top decision makers like if they find it is too
expensive for the product to ship to them compared to other stores.
Or if it's taking too long for the product to arrive then they might change to a different
store.
So they want you to make sure that you are providing the most accurate up to date information
to help increase the performance of your ads or free listings that is to help customers
do decide to want to buy your products.
So if you're offering better shipping services or lower, more competitive costs, that is
going to greatly help you.
So let's look at the other way to resolve this issue, which is the missing sub-attribute
country issue.
So let's take a look in depth, what are the various sub attributes under this shipping
attribute.
So under shipping attribute, these are the various sub attributes.
So within a single column or single field, you have to put in country, so which country
that this product has been delivered to so there could be different costs.
So you have to put in the country, which is the quiet, compulsory field and delivery area
that could go down to region, postcode, if you have different pricing for different areas.
So you can put in all of this information and location ideas, you can see all of these
optional information, unless you're offering really specific competitive prices, like lower
prices, to go down to like specific postcode area or location ID, then I suggest you just
leave all of this alone, mainly because it's quite complex.
So if you're doing it wrongly, then that's not going to look good on your store.
And of course, if you're using a specific service class, like first class delivery or
second class, so the speed, you can also put that in.
This information is optional.
And the price, so as Google has mentioned, you're using this attribute specially to overwrite
your general pricing costs, specific cost that takes into account maybe the weight,
and fragility so you need to pay a little bit more, so you want to work that exception
into your price, this will be the pricing that you use, you can use fixed shipping costs,
you can use like full stops, period, and the currency don't use commas, you can also put
in the handling time, which is an optional field, like how much time does it take minimum
and maximum amount of time.
So typically, I would say, don't underestimate the handling time, put in the average, and
then give a good maximum handling time when possible to manage your customers' expectation.
And there is also the transit time.
So this is how the attribute is going to look like.
So let's take a look.
So for example, if you want to submit the shipping fee, then inside shipping, you will
put in the postal code, so you can put in the country, colon and postal code, colon,
price, minimum handling time, colon, maximum handling time, this is the format and the
order in which this information should be submitted.
If you want to fill in all of this information, if you don't specify the specific sub attribute,
Country region, service and price, then you need to specifically put it in this order,
which is the country first the region, service and price.
And then you format the value by submitting the value of each of these sub attributes.
As you can see these four sub attributes here in the same order separated with a colon.
Okay.
So for example, if you're submitting it, if you're shipping to US, you put the US and
you put a colon sign.
And then there's the postal code, 80302, you put colon, which is the postal code that you
are doing, and then the price 649 6.4 950 USD, the correct currency code that you should
put in need to look it up before you put it in.
And then you put the colon sign, which is the minimum handling time maximum handling
time, which is one to three.
And transit time is two to five days.
So there's one to three days and it's two to five days, if let's say you're transporting
the product to maybe the US and Canada.
And it's the exact same pricing and the same minimum handling time, you still need to submit
two different sets of values, one with the US and one with Canada.
So even though the rest of the pricing and the time, turnaround time is the same, you
still need to put in the country to differentiate the different pricing at country level.
So this is a compulsory value.
So make sure all of this is submitted correctly.
Now you know exactly what's the error about, and which is the correct information need
to submit to Google.
I hope you can fix that in your automated feed.
I always encourage online store owners to set up automated feed so they don't have to
worry about the products, if there are any changes, all of this information will be automatically
updated in Google Merchant.
If you're doing it manually, then you might want to set up some kind of refresh, data
refresh, so the current information will always be shown on Google Merchant Center.
The best way to make sure you don't get this issue, I highly recommend is to simplify your
shipping costs.
If you just have a small store and you have a certain number of products, make sure you
calculate your shipping costs to make sure that your products or business continues to
be sustainable.
Keep it as simple as possible.
If you set up like the minimal shipping, all in the Google Merchant Center settings under
shipping and returns, if you provide the, all the correct shipping information, you
just put it right there, then you don't have to complicate your life by having to submit
individual attribute values for each of your products, I find it really complicated.
I mean, unless you're a really big store like Microsoft or Oracle where you sell 1000s of
products and variants, then maybe that will make sense because maybe there are specific
products with certain specific rules, then you might actually want to adjust that specifically
for individual products for your shipping costs or shipping settings.
However, if you're only selling certain product categories, and there's not much difference
in shipping costs, maybe you just want to standardize your shipping costs.
For example, having a standard fees for your in-country shipping, and then a standardized
costs for shipping internationally, especially if your products are of similar size.
Don't complicate your life by messing up your product feed, just update it in the Merchant
Center settings set up, set it up based on maybe local or international or you can set
it based on a sudden weight limit, you can set up like two to three different cost shipping
costs for the weight differences.
And then you stick to a specific courier methods so that it will be really standard and you
don't have to worry about submitting individual attribute values under the shipping column
attribute.
If you want slightly more guidance on how to set up shipping settings exactly as my
other video right here, where I explain how you can set it up, if you're doing free shipping,
or if you have a specific cost.
And if you want to drive more traffic to your store without running ads, as well, I have
another video, which you can check out drive traffic without running ads.
So you can check that out as well, you can explore different options of how to drive
traffic to your store.
So it's good to not just focus on getting just traffic from Google, I highly recommend
you to diversify your traffic source so you're not highly dependent on Google.
You can also drive traffic through other sources.
So it helps to reduce your reliance and risk just by focusing on that one channel.
And if you want to explore a more exhaustive list of driving traffic to your site, you
can check out my Shopify marketing guide where I go into the pros and cons of different ways
of driving traffic to your store.
You can check that out right there in the description and pinned comments, link is right
there.
And if you require more specific help to run shopping ads, whether it is to grow a blog
or YouTube channel to grow your brand and get more traffic and sales in the long term
strategy.
Check out my contact form in the description and pin comments as well help Shopify store
and other online store owners to get more traffic and sales in the middle to long term
so your store will continue to be more profitable and sustainable in the long run.
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by getting on Google and YouTube page one.
I'm Clarice Lin, The ROI Doctor signing off.
I'll see you in the next video.
Bye