Barcodes Have Come to Merchant Center

The secret to using GTIN numbers

So, what's a GTIN? It's really very simple; it's a barcode and Google wants you to have one for every product in their feed. This isn't new as such, but they are getting a lot stricter about it. These come in a variety of formats and helpfully, Google does offer a handy list of the various forms in which these numbers can come. 

What this means

You might already have seen this, with item-level disapprovals in the Diagnostics tab for any products that don't meet the new requirements. This will look a little like this:

Any product that does not have a GTIN isn't going to be showing in your feed, so you have two options. Either you can add a barcode to your product, or you can tell Google that there isn't one; either way, we can help.

 What you need to do

 To take advantage of the system, as well as the additional visibility and sales that come from GTIN use, all you need to do is to enter a valid barcode into your products. Zone1 can then work it's magic and automatically change the Google feed for you.

Of course, some products won't have a barcode: custom made sofas, vintage jackets and homemade pies. If you're selling any of these, don't worry. Zone1 will know to amend the feed and tell the merchant feed that the GTIN identifier doesn't exist. These products will still show up in Google and you won't need to do anything. 

Either way, we've got you covered.