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Shipping settings

Shipping settings are the delivery rules a store sets in Merchant Center for each country, telling Google what delivery costs and how long it takes.

How it works

Shipping settings are set at account level in Merchant Center. Each shipping service names its delivery countries, currency, cost and delivery time: handling days before the parcel leaves plus transit days. The cost can be a flat rate or a table, for example by order value or weight; a weight table needs shipping_weight on every product. Product groups get their own rates through the shipping_label attribute, which Google’s guide suggests adding with a supplemental feed.

The product attribute shipping overrides the account settings for that one product. Once it carries a price for a country, Google ignores the account service for that location, including its delivery times and minimum order value.

Shipping costs are required for Shopping ads and free listings in 30 countries, among them Czechia, Slovakia and Poland; Ukraine is not on the list. A product sold to one of these countries with no shipping cost in either the account or the feed can be disapproved. In the EU, delivery to parcel lockers and other collection points can only be set at account level. The steps for a new country are in the checklist for selling in Europe from Ukraine.

Where you see it

  • Merchant Center: the account’s shipping services, called shippingSettings in the Merchant API.
  • Feed: the attributes shipping, shipping_label and shipping_weight.
  • Ads and free listings: notes such as “Fast and free shipping” on products that qualify.

Example

Example store, not client data.

The tableware shop’s Czech service charges 99 per order, with up to 1 handling day and 2 transit days. Delivery takes at most 1 + 2 = 3 business days. Its 120 glass vases carry shipping_label = fragile, and the account charges a separate rate of 199 for that label. If one vase got its own shipping price for Czechia, Google would ignore the account service for it, delivery time included.

Not to be confused with

  • Free shipping threshold — one rule inside shipping settings: the order amount from which delivery is free.
  • Return policy — the terms on which buyers send goods back to the store.

Right and wrong readings

  • Wrong: “Shipping in Merchant Center can be cheaper than at checkout.” Right: Google names this gap as a cause of account warnings or suspension. Match the costs on your site; if you can’t, overestimate, but not excessively.

Sources