By default, when an account is added in the Google Merchants – Account center in Sproxi, exports are disabled. “Exports” refer to your Google Listings in Sproxi feeding to the Google Merchant Center. We recommend keeping exports disabled until you are comfortable with your listings. This is to ensure you are not sending poor quality listings to Google.
Things to Know Regarding Exports:
- Exports are set to disabled by default after adding/linking a new Google Merchant Center account in Sproxi.
- The export status may be changed at anytime.
Using the Feed Manager to Enable Exports for Your Google Listings
In order for Sproxi to export you Google listings to the Google merchant center, the Google Account connected to your shopping channel in Sproxi (set up in CONNECTIONS>Google Merchant>Accounts) must be enabled inside the Feed Manager (info below on where to find this!)
This setting will enable Sproxi to export your Google Listings (in Sproxi) to the Google Merchant Center at a Global level. There are three choices:
- Disabled – no products will export to the merchant center. This is a good feature to use if you are performing a lot of work on your Google Listings or just getting started in Sproxi.
- Live API Updates – this setting uses Google’s Shopping API to send information to Google in real time. When a change is made to a Google Listing in Sproxi, it is immediately exported to Google (unless you turn off export at the listing level, which will be explained below). Most use this feature.
- Feed CSV File: – this setting is used if you want to connect a CSV file to your merchant center. In this setting you CSV is updated once a day OR when you manually tell Sproxi to update it (more info below). This is useful when connected to a third party service that uses a Google Shopping CSV file, or you do not want live updates to your Google Merchant Center account.
You can also control the export status at the individual product level. This knowledge base article describes both procedures.
Enabling Exports at the Global Level
By default, when you add your Google account to Sproxi,. exports are “disabled.” Navigating to “Google Merchant > Feed Manager” (see image below) you feeds are disabled for this account.
To enable exports, click the “edit” button next to the account (on the far right). This will direct you to Feed Manager settings where you set the feed status to “Disabled,” “Live API Updates,” and “Feed CSV File”
Now your feed status has been updated and once products pass local validation they will begin exporting in Sproxi. As you update your listings, Sproxi will immediately queue your listing for export to the Google Merchant Center. This ensure your Google Listings are always up-to-date in the Google Merchant Center.
Export Status at Product Level
As Sproxi creates Google Listings, the export status for those listings are set automatically to “Enabled” provided the export status at the account level is enabled. There are two ways to view the export status for individual products and that’s through the “Listings Status” table (CONNECTIONS>Google>Listing Status) and by editing an individual Google Listing. This is useful when you have specific products you do not want to export to the Google Merchant Center. For details of the Google Listings Status table, please visit the KB article: Using the Google Listings Status Table.
Change the Export Status Using the Bulk Selector Tool
You will notice the export status for these products, under the column “Enabled,” all have a red “x,” denoting the export status is set to disabled.
To enable exports for select products, check the box next to each product. You will then see three buttons appear:
- Enable Feed Export – enables export status
- Disable Feed Export – disables export status
- Remove From Merchant Center – this will remove the Google Listing from the Google Merchant Center. This is useful when you have a Listing that you now longer want to advertise in the Google Adwords. If it has already been exported to Google and you later decide you don’t want to advertise it any long, click this button to completely remove it. This will also automatically disable the export status of the listing to ensure it isn’t sent again. NOTE: if you accidentally remove a product from the Google Merchant Center, don’t worry. Simply enable the export status and manually export it to the Google Merchant Center using the instructions below.
In the image below, I will bulk select a few products, click the “Enable Feed Export” to enable the export status for the selected products. Notice how the red “x” has been replaced by a green check-mark. This means these products are eligible for exports.
Enabling Export Status While Editing an Individual Google Listing
After editing a Google Listing, you may decide you want to change the export status and immediately (manually) export the Google Listing to the Google Merchant Center. First, click the edit the Google Listing by clicking the edit icon for the listing through the Google Listings Status table or the Google Listings table (CONNECTIONS>Google>Listings). Once you have opened the listing in edit mode, notice the “enable” and “Send to Merchant Center” buttons. By default, if you have enabled exports globally (see above), and there are no validation issues preventing it from sending to the Google Merchant Center, the listing export status will be “enabled” and the listing will automatically queue for export. Notice the two dialog boxes on top of the listing:
- Offline – Product is currently offline.
- Enabled – Product status is enabled….
The status is “enabled” because the export status has been sent to “enabled” at the account level.
The status of “Offline” is showing for this product because it is scheduled to send to to the Google Merchant Center but has not been sent at the time I took this screen shot.
NOTE: you may notice other dialog boxes that appear under the two described above. These dialog boxes will appear if the product has failed local validation and thus are prevented from sending to the GMC.
Once the Google Listing is exported by Sproxi to the GMC, the “Send to Merchant Center” button will flip from Green to Red, and the “Offline” message on top will flip to “Online.” You can click the “Sent to Merchant Center” button to force Sproxi to bypass the queue and immediately send the Google Listing to the GMC. Notice the image below. The button in the “Online” dialog box now reads “Delete From Merchant Center,” and the button in the “Enabled” dialog box reads “disable” product. Clicking the “disable” button will stop this product from exporting again until you “enable” exports by clicking the button again OR using the bulk editing button in the Google Listing Status table as described above.
NOTE: As a reminder, just because you have disabled exports of a Google Listing, if it has uploaded to the GMC, it is still going to be there. Clicking the “Delete from Merchant Center” will completely remove the listing from the GMC.
