I received a suspension warning notice from Goggle Merchant Center support a few weeks ago, as the shipping prices in my shopping cart do not match the shipping prices in my products feed, on 5% of my products (I have 20k products). I worked on these shipping mismatch issues in my GMC account until they all showed as resolved. However, this morning I received a notice from GMC that my account has been suspended due to a remaining shipping mismatch, on 1,677 products. The shipping prices are still coming back higher on my website as they are in my product feed. I've done about all that I can do on this, I can't think of how else to resolve this issue. I am wondering if anyone has any suggestions? My 100% ecommerce based business cannot survive without this product feed.

Hi 1234,

Do you list your shipping including tax in your GMC.

We had a similar issue where we had it set to 2.95 but we had to change to 3.54 to include 20% tax.

Regards,
David

David,

Thanks for the suggestion. I'm not listing tax with shipping.

The shipping prices that are being sent to GMC via the product feed are higher than the actual shipping prices when purchasing the products on our website. I don't know how or why this is happening. It seems to me that the shipping price should be the same in the feed as it is on the website.? I've been working on this for the past several weeks but unfortunately GMC suspended the account this morning due to the shipping mismatch.

I placed discountshippingusps=-25, and did the same with ups and fedex in my includes file this morning and that brought the shipping prices on my website down on alot of the products that I checked, but not all of them. I submitted a Review Request from GMC afterward and am now awaiting their response. I don't have much hope in the resolving the overall issue however, as I still need to figure out why the shipping prices are higher in my feed than they actual shipping prices on my website.

I've been through this too and you can use the tool in google merchant center to look up products, and check the rates for a given zip code against what's shown on your website.
They need to be close, and if they are off, make sure they are a little higher on google, or they will ding you.
They do have some powerful tools to mimic the rates shown on your website.

David

David,

I must say I am glad that I'm not the only one that has experienced this. When I received the warning several weeks ago, I used the tools in the GMC account that you mentioned. I went through every single affected item (approx 2k) and resolved the shipping mismatch until I completed the entire list and was down to zero remaining issues. It took several attempts over several days to re-connect with my GFMC support rep to inform her of the item issue resolution. She finally emailed back just a few days ago and told me that everything looked great and that the review team was very satisfied with the fix. Then I woke up this morning to find the suspension notice. The suspension notice also provided a new list of several additional items that weren't on the original list (obviously). Unfortunately I do not have the ability to attempt to resolve any of the new shipping mismatch issues because the account is now suspended.

Just to update - after placing the discountshippingusps=-25 (same with ups, and fedex), and then requesting another review from GMC, my suspension has been removed and 100% of products are now active. Hopefully it will stay that way.

I still need to fix the underlying issue however. I don't want to have to give my customers a 25% discount on shipping 24/7/365 in order to keep my GMC account off suspension. I need to figure out why the shipping rates in my product feed are higher than the actual shipping rates at the point of purchase....ugh, I say.

Hi, just to be clear, there are no rates in your feed.
Only the weight and perhaps dimensions. But I'm guess you know that.
Google ads attempts to quote the rates the same way your store does.
It really boils down to setting the same specs in the merchant account as your store.

You may need to take a fresh look at all settings in your store, to be sure you have a good grasp of how the rates are being calculated there.
The good news is any time the google shopper bot hits my store to check these things, it's always just one item to a certain zip code.
Often they use google location addresses in many major cities.

But my advice would be to take a hard, fresh look at my setup (settings in includes, admin and are you quoting retail or negotiated rates) and then head back into google merchant to review there to closely match the setup.

One thing that gave me trouble was the "initial pack weight" setting we enjoy with ect. It covers the average weight of the box, ant it's brilliant when it comes to quoting rates. Google does not have anything like that. What can happen is when adding the initial pack weight, the weight hops over to the next pound, and rightly so. So my website is quoting two pounds in weight and google is quoting one.
What I did is alter my code in the product feed. When the feed is exported, it's alters the weight of all products to add in that same amount I have set for the initial pack weight setting.
Maybe if you're using that setting, that could be the issue. But if so, check with Mike, assuming your using his feed generator and he could write the code so it check to see if that setting exists, and if so, pad the weight of all products to avoid the suspensions that come.

I guess my point is, I feel your pain LOL
The google ads can be a valuable resource, but they do enforce their rules.

David

Thank you for the clarification. Actually I did not know that. This is my first time dealing with this so I'm learning as I go along. Google support has referred to this issue as a shipping "cost" mismatch. They say that the shipping "costs" in my feed do not match the shipping costs on my website.

I have my GMC shipping set up to use Carrier Rates, which as I'm sure you know means that they get the rates directly from USPS, FedEx, and UPS. I see now that the product weight and size info coming in from my feed is being calculated and coming back to Google at a lower rate than what the carriers are returning to my website, for the exact same size and weight product(s). That is very unfortunate and a bit mind-boggling to say the least. Why do these carriers take the exact same product info and return a different rate to Google than they return to my customers upon purchase? I am using negotiated rates, and tax isn't an issue. I understand the concept of Google wanting the same rates (or lower) to be retuned to customers on my website as they are getting from the carriers. However, how and why there is a mismatch in the first place is the million-dollar question.

The initial pack weight may be something to look at. I have a ton of small products, so I always set the weight to include pounds and ounces (1.25lbs). USPS charges a different price for 1.25lbs as they do for 1.75lbs so for a small inexpensive item, that is a good thing. If Google is reading a 1.75lb as a 1lb item, I know for sure that UPS and FedEx are reading the same item as 2lbs. That would be an issue for Google. I can't think of what else could possibly be causing the discrepancy.

There are quite a few settings for shipping rates and this my not be the fulll list, but I copied this from here - https://www.ecommercetemplates.com/help/ecommplus/parameters.asp so check your settings carefully.

quote:

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Adding tax to shipping and / or handling

If you need to add tax to shipping you'll need to choose taxShipping=1 - if not leave it as it is ie. taxShipping=0

Setting taxShipping=2 will add the shipping tax to the state and country tax totals.

If you need to add tax to handling you'll need to choose taxHandling=1 - if not leave it as it is ie. taxHandling=0

Setting taxHandling=2 will add the handling tax to the state and country tax totals.

Add a handling charge which is a percentage of the cart total + shipping + handling. For instance you could set .
$handlingchargepercent=5;

Removing the shipping address

Use:

noshipaddress=true

to cause a shipping address entry section not to be shown on the checkout page if set.

Will pick up option

Use:

willpickuptext="Will Pickup"

If you want to allow your customers the option of picking up their purchase from your physical location. The text here can be changed as necessary.

Use

willpickupcost=1.32

To set the cost of picking up from your location. Set to zero if there is no charge.

On Canadian based stores the home state tax rate will need to be set as well with the parameter...

homestatetaxrate=8

...where 8 is the percentage of the local province tax rate.

To remove the handling charge for Will Pick Up orders use

willpickupnohandling=TRUE

Show tax inclusive prices

To show tax exclusive price followed by the inclusive price on the products page use showtaxinclusive=1 - the wording for the tax can be changed in vsadmin/inc/languagefile_en.asp.

To only show tax inclusive price, set

showtaxinclusive=2

If the tax is already assumed to be included in the product price, set

showtaxinclusive=3

UPS Options

The way that you deliver your packages to UPS for delivery can affect the total cost of delivering the package. We have set the default as "Customer Counter", though you can change this by setting the following in your vsadmin/includes.asp file . . .

upspickuptype="03"

The code in quotes there would be taken from the following table...

01 - Daily Pickup
03 - Customer Counter
06 - One Time Pickup
07 - On Call Air
19 - Letter Center
20 - Air Service Center

Remember to enclose the code above in double quotes. Also, please note that these options are not exactly the same as you might find on the UPS web site but we hear that is something that UPS are working on...more information

The signature options available for UPS are...
signatureoption="direct"
signatureoption="indirect"
signatureoption="adult"

To add UPS shipping insurance based on the product value, but not ask the customer...
addshippinginsurance=1

To ask the customer if they would like shipping insurance on the checkout form...
addshippinginsurance=2

Commercial location

Set the following in vsadmin/includes.asp ...

commercialloc=TRUE

...if you want to place a question and checkbox on checkout for shipping to a commercial location. This is automatically set for UPS but can be used for other shipping methods.

commercialloc=2

if you want the default set to "on" instead of defaulting to "off". That will still give the customer the opportunity to set it to residential, and will not set to commercial if on a previous order they set residential.

Packing slip list order

If you need to sort the items on the packing list by the product id or product name, use the following in includes.asp...

packingslipsort="cartProdId"
packingslipsort="cartProdName"

These parameters were added to allow for sorting of the products in an order along with the invoice and packing slip

viewordersort="cartprodid"
packingslipsort="cartprodid DESC"
invoicesort="cartprodname"

Split heavy packages

Adding the parameter splitpackat when using UPS or USPS shipping will split heavy packages into multiple packages. For instance...

splitpackat=70

Split large packages

By default large packages are split so a rate will be returned. If you need to turn off that feature, you will need the following...

nosplitlargepacks=TRUE

Per product tax rate

To set a tax rate per product add this and a tax rate box will appear in the product admin page...

perproducttaxrate=true

Shipping estimator

To place a shipping estimator on the cart page before checkout use

estimateshipping=TRUE

There is also this parameter you can set if you are using a shipping method like weight based or price based shipping where the ship state is necessary . . .

defaultshipstate="California"

Please note, this is not necessary for UPS / USPS / Canada Post shipping as it is the zip / postal code that is used.

This switch is available to not set a default zip (postal) code for the shipping estimator . . .

nodefaultzip=TRUE

To remove the estimated number of days for delivery displayed. . .

noshipdateestimate=TRUE

Radio buttons to replace drop down choices

If you would like to present the available shipping options as radio buttons rather than the default drop down choices then set the following . . .

shippingoptionsasradios=TRUE

Combine shipping and handling

Shipping and handling can be combined with the switch . . .

combineshippinghandling=TRUE

Default shipping tracking

This allows selection of the default shipping carrier on the tracking page. The choices are "ups", "usps" and "fedex". For instance...

defaulttrackingcarrier="usps"

If you need to offer a choice of carriers for tracking, add the following

trackingcarriers="ups,usps,fedex"

If you want the tracking link on orderstatus.asp to go to your tracking.asp page rather than the carrier web site for tracking details set the following.

useinternaltrackinglink=TRUE

If your carrier uses a 10 digit tracking code you can set the default tracking link for the carrier using the following

tracklink10digit="https://www.yourcarrierurl.co.uk/apps/tracking/?parcel="

...changing the URL to the correct one for your carrier (Version 6.9 required)

Removing FedEx discounted rates

If you receive discount rates from FedEx, this setting will give the customer the full default rate

uselistshippingrates=TRUE

FedEx delivery options

These services are available for FedEx shipping
saturdaydelivery=true
Presents customer with Saturday Delivery option
packaging="25kgbox"
envelope, pak, box, tube, 10kgbox, 25kgbox
codpaymentprovider=4
Declares which payment option is used for Cash On Delivery
signatureoption="none"
none indirect direct adult
allowsignaturerelease=TRUE
Allows customer to select Signature Release as an option
insidepickup=TRUE
Calculates rates based on an inside pickup (freight only)
noweekendshipment=TRUE
Packages will not be rated as if they are shipped on a weekend (6.5.3 required)

NOTE
The C.O.D. / Saturday Delivery / Signature (direct, adult) / Packaging switches will also work with UPS.

FedEx SmartPost

These are the parameters associated with FedEx SmartPost

smartpostindicia = "PRESORTED_BOUND_PRINTED_MATTER"
more options: MEDIA_MAIL PRESORTED_STANDARD PARCEL_SELECT PRESORTED_BOUND_PRINTED_MATTER
smartposthubid="5531"
smartpostancendorsement = "CARRIER_LEAVE_IF_NO_RESPONSE"
more options: CHANGE_SERVICE ADDRESS_CORRECTION RETURN_SERVICE

USPS container types

If you need to specify container types for USPS shipping then you'll need the following addition

uspsprioritycontainer="flat rate box"

available options for priorirty mail: flat rate envelope / flat rate box / lg flat rate box

uspsexpresscontainer="flat rate envelope"

To make the system use whatever flat rate box fits rather than having to specify container types explicitly, use the following...

uspsprioritycontainer="auto"
uspsexpresscontainer="auto"

Use domestic shipping

If you need to force the USA and Canada to both use the "domestic" shipping method rather than the international shipping method you have setup in admin, set the following

usandcausedomesticservice=TRUE

Automatically copy the billing address to the shipping address.

If you want to automatically copy the billing address to the shipping address if a shipping address is not entered, set the following

autobillingtoshipping=TRUE

Force the state selector in the shipping estimator.

If you want to force the state selector in the shipping estimator, set the following

forcestateselector=TRUE

Set the initial box weight.

If you want to set the initial weight of your shipping box / packaging, set the following

initialpackweight=2.5

Show USA States and Canadian Provinces for use in the admin zones page.

If you want to need to set State / Province zones for both countries when using weight or price based shipping, set the following

usandcasplitzones=TRUE

Discount online shipping rates.

If you want to set percentage discounts / increments per shipping carrier use the parameters...

discountshippingups=-10
discountshippingusps=5
discountshippingfedex=20
discountshippingdhl=15

...where -10 will discount the online shipping rate by 10% and 5 will increment the online shipping rate by 5%.

Zero tax display

If an item is tax exempt and you need to show the zero tax display rather than the default which is no display at all, add the following...

alwaysdisplaycountrytax=TRUE

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David,

Thanks for the info. I am using a few of the settings that you posted there. GMC is no longer angry with me and my customers are enjoying a discounted ship rate due to the discountshipping attributes that I set in my includes file in order to get GMC to take my account off suspension.

You had stated that you altered your code to add the initial pack weight to each product entered weight, is that correct? If so, that would actually increase the weight that is being sent to Google, right? My feed isn't set up that way. My products seem to be sending over the same weight as is displayed in my product admin.

I checked several of my products against GMC and the weight seems to be sending correctly. For instance I have a product that weight 0.975lbs. Checking the product details in my GMC account it is showing correctly at 0.975bs. I can only assume that FedEx and UPS are rounding these <1lb products up to the next highest pound and creating a shipping discrepancy. Of course this is only an "educated guess", and it might no be the actual culprit. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be anything that can be done about it. So...I am stuck offering discounted rates for the moment.

Google does have a setting where you can add a percentage to the rates.
So if you are having to discount your rates by 10% then just go into the google merchant settings and tell it to add 10% to the rates, then remove your discount on your site.
Assuming that's what you want.

David

David,

That is an excellent suggestion. I will try that. Google seems to be very touchy about this issue, so I will try doing this in small increments and will keep an eye out for any notices. I have the discount rates in my includes file set to -20% (for each shipper). I set this rate in a hasty attempt to get my account off suspension at the time, and it worked. I don't think that I need that large of a discount, so I believe that I will add 10% to each service my GMC account and subtract 10% in my includes file for starters. I will test that for a little while and then slowly increase/decrease until I am at a comfy spot.

On a side note - I currently have separate Shipping Services set up in my Google account, one for First Class, one for Parcel Post, one for UPS, one for FedEx, and one for my Oversize products. It just occurred to me that I don't have one set up for Priority Mail. I think that I should probably set one up for Priority Mail as well (?) I am just hesitant because I don't want to poke the bear at this point....

When google comes to your store to check, they will often look at the lowest cost shipping and compare that to what's showing in the feed.
If you offer priority in your store, then yes, you should have that setup in google as well.

David