How to Configure Shipping Settings in Google Merchant Center

Shipping is one of the most common reasons new products don’t get approved. In many countries Google requires shipping information, and when costs in Merchant Center don’t match your checkout, shoppers see one number on Google and another on your site.

This guide covers where shipping is required, account-level policies versus the item-level shipping attribute, each step of creating a policy, every cost type Google offers, and the platform quirks that cause settings to be overwritten.

Where shipping information is required

Google’s free listings documentation says shipping settings or the shipping attribute are required in a set of countries that includes:

• The United States, Canada and the United Kingdom
• Australia, Germany and the Netherlands
• Many other EU countries, plus Brazil, India, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea, among others

If you target one of these countries without shipping information, products are likely to show a missing shipping issue. Even where it isn’t required, accurate shipping helps shoppers compare total cost. When selling in several countries, your shipping must cover each country that requires it; see multiple countries and currencies.

If products are already flagged, jump to how to fix missing shipping information.

Account-level policies vs item-level shipping

You can give Google shipping information in two places. Most stores should start with account-level policies and use item-level data only where needed.

	Account-level shipping policies	Item-level shipping attribute
Where it’s set	Products & store > Shipping and returns > Shipping policies	The shipping attribute in your product data
Applies to	All products, or products with a given shipping_label	One product, for the locations it specifies
Priority	Default	With a price, overrides account settings for that location
Best for	Most catalogs with consistent rules	Exceptions that can’t be expressed with labels
Maintenance	Edit once in Merchant Center (unless a platform sync manages it)	Must be kept current in your feed

Google asks you to keep the two consistent. In practice, a product with an old shipping value in the feed can show a different cost than the policy you just updated, and it’s easy to forget it’s there.

How Google chooses between multiple options

If you provide more than one shipping option for the same country, Google shows the lowest cost. If costs tie, it shows the fastest speed. Keep that in mind when you add premium or express services: they won’t replace a cheaper standard option in the displayed cost.

Before you start: labels, weights and your checkout

1. Write down your real rates. Run a few test orders on your site (light and heavy items, low and high order values, different regions) and note the shipping cost and delivery estimate shown at checkout.
2. Decide whether you need labels. If some products ship differently (oversized, freight, free shipping), add a shipping_label value to those products. Google says to add labels before you set up the policy.
3. Add weight and dimensions if needed. Carrier-calculated rates use shipping_weight and shipping_length, shipping_width and shipping_height.
4. Check currency. The policy currency must match the currency of your product prices for each target country.

Labels are added in your product data: your platform, feed file, or a supplemental source. If you need to set labels with logic (for example, by product type), attribute rules or a supplemental feed can help.

Step by step: create a shipping policy

1. Go to Products & store > Shipping and returns and open Shipping policies. Choose to add a shipping policy.
2. Choose countries. Select the countries you ship to. This is the destination, not where you ship from.
3. Choose products. Select All products, or Specific products using shipping labels. A specific-products policy requires an all-products policy to already exist.
4. Set shipping speed. Choose Google-determined speed based on carrier (US only), or enter it manually (see the next section).
5. Set shipping costs. Choose the currency (matching your product prices) and a cost type.
6. Add order value conditions if they apply, such as free shipping over a set amount.
7. Save, then compare a few products in Merchant Center with your checkout.

Google allows up to 20 shipping policies per country, which leaves room for separate standard, express and label-based policies.

Setting shipping speed

Delivery speed is made up of three parts. If you set them manually, base them on what you actually achieve, not best-case times.

Setting	What it means	Options
Order cut-off time	The time of day after which orders are processed the next business day	A time plus a time zone
Handling time	Business days to prepare an order before it ships	Minimum and maximum days, and which days of the week you process orders
Transit time	Days in transit with the carrier	One range for all destinations, or by zone; up to 100 zones defined by postal code

In the US you can instead let Google determine speed based on carrier. If you use manual zones, group postal codes that genuinely share similar transit times rather than creating zones for their own sake.

Setting shipping costs

Google offers several cost types. Choose the one closest to how your checkout calculates shipping.

Cost type	How it works	Good fit
Free	No charge for any order	Stores that ship everything free
Free over amount	Free above an order value, a set cost below	Common free-shipping thresholds
Flat rate	One fixed cost per order	Simple, uniform pricing
Carrier-calculated	Rates from supported carriers, using weight and dimensions	Available in Australia, Germany, the UK and the US
Price-based	Cost depends on order price bands	Tiered pricing by basket value
Weight-based	Cost depends on weight bands	Heavier products costing more to send
Destination or region based	Cost depends on where the order goes	Different rates by region or zone
Quantity-based	Cost depends on number of items	Per-item shipping
Advanced cost table	Combines dimensions, such as weight and price	Complex rate cards

Order value conditions

You can add conditions based on order value: free shipping over a set amount, or no shipping offered below a set amount (useful if you have a minimum order).

Matching your website

Google asks for shipping costs as close as possible to your website and recommends overestimating if you can’t match closely. That way, shoppers don’t find a higher cost at checkout than they saw on Google.

Using multiple policies and shipping labels

Labels let you treat groups of products differently without writing shipping into every item.

Scenario	Setup
Oversized items cost more to ship	Label them (for example oversized) and create a specific-products policy for that label alongside your all-products policy
Some products always ship free	Label them and create a free shipping policy for that label
Different rates for a remote region	Use destination or region based costs, or zones, within the policy
Express and standard services	Add both; Google displays the lowest cost, and the fastest if tied

Keep label names simple and consistent between your data and Merchant Center. A small spelling difference means the product falls back to the all-products policy.

Platform notes: Shopify, WooCommerce and APIs

Shopify

The Google & YouTube app can bring shipping settings across from Shopify. Two caveats from Google: updates sent by a platform or API may overwrite manual edits you make in Merchant Center, and rates from Shopify third-party shipping-rate apps can’t be imported, so those must be set up manually in Merchant Center. If you use such an app, recreate its rates as closely as you can. See Shopify Merchant Center troubleshooting.

WooCommerce

The Google for WooCommerce extension handles setup and the product feed; check the shipping configuration it creates against your WooCommerce shipping zones and against Merchant Center after setup. See how to connect WooCommerce to Merchant Center.

Feeds and the Merchant API

If shipping is sent at item level from your system, remember it overrides account policies for those locations. Decide which system owns shipping and document it, so nobody edits the wrong place.

Shipping in structured data

Google Search Central’s merchant listing documentation supports shipping and return information in structured data, and recommends defining global shipping and return policies with Organization markup, using offer-level markup only to override. That’s separate from Merchant Center settings, but the information should agree everywhere shoppers and Google can see it. See how product structured data supports Shopping and aligning website data and product feeds.

Common shipping mistakes

• No policy for a target country that requires shipping.
• Policy currency doesn’t match product price currency.
• A labeled policy created before an all-products policy existed.
• Label names that don’t match between product data and the policy.
• Old item-level shipping values overriding a new account policy.
• Manual edits in Merchant Center wiped by the next platform sync.
• Free shipping thresholds changed on the site but not in Merchant Center.
• Handling or transit times copied from a carrier’s best case rather than your real fulfilment.

A simple habit prevents most of these: whenever you change shipping on your site, update Merchant Center the same day and test one order on each side.

When to get help

Shipping becomes harder with many countries, currencies, carriers or rate apps. If products keep showing missing shipping issues after you’ve added policies, or a sync keeps overwriting your settings, our Google Merchant Center service can audit the setup. For broader data issues, see product feed optimization.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• Google Merchant Center Help: Set up shipping settings for an entire account
• Google Merchant Center Help: Free listings for products
• Google Merchant Center Help: Show products in multiple target countries
• Google Merchant Center Help: Install and link the Google & YouTube app on Shopify
• WooCommerce Docs: Google for WooCommerce, get started
• Google Search Central: Merchant listing structured data
• Google Merchant Center Help: Product data specification

Last reviewed October 10, 2026 against the official documentation listed above. Google changes Merchant Center features and policies regularly — always confirm details in your own account.