Merchant Center Rejection Reasons and Solutions

First, Understand This: “Submitted” and “Approved” Are Not the Same

Successfully completing product submission through IHASHOP does not mean that every submitted product has been approved by Google Merchant Center.

Google reviews products individually and checks whether their data complies with its requirements. Even when the submission is technically successful, products with missing or incorrect information may still be rejected.

This does not always indicate a technical problem with the IHASHOP connection or product submission system. In most cases, the issue is related to Google’s data quality checks.

To review the actual status of your products, open:

Google Merchant Center → Products → Diagnostics

The Diagnostics screen allows you to review:

• Approved products
• Rejected products
• Products with warnings
• Missing or incorrect fields
• Account-level issues

1. Shipping Settings Have Not Been Configured

Symptom

Almost all products may be rejected, or an error similar to “missing shipping information” may appear.

When the issue affects a large number of products at the same time, check your Merchant Center shipping settings first.

Cause

Google Merchant Center accounts used for Türkiye require account-level shipping settings.

Even when your product information is correct, Google may reject the products when no valid shipping service has been configured in the Merchant Center account.

This setting is not configured from the IHASHOP administration panel. It must be completed directly in Google Merchant Center.

Solution

Open the following section in your Google Merchant Center account:

Tools and Settings → Shipping and Returns

Then create at least one shipping service.

Configure the following information according to your actual delivery conditions:

• Delivery region
• Shipping fee
• Delivery method
• Applicable shipping rule

According to the source documentation, even a single fixed-rate shipping rule may be sufficient to meet this requirement.

After saving the shipping settings, wait for Google to review the products again and check the error status in the Diagnostics screen.

2. Invalid Barcode or GTIN

Symptom

One of the following errors may appear for the product:

• Invalid GTIN
• Incorrect product identifier
• Invalid barcode
• Unsupported product identifier

Cause

The product’s barcode field may contain:

• A number that is not genuine
• A manually invented barcode
• A number with an incorrect length
• A barcode belonging to another product

Barcodes are not simply random sequences of digits. GTIN numbers contain a mathematically verifiable check digit, and Google can validate this structure.

For this reason, not every number that resembles a barcode is considered valid.

Solution

When the product has a genuine barcode, enter the correct number in the product barcode field.

When you own purchased barcode numbers that are ready for use, use the IHASHOP Barcode Pool feature.

When the product does not have a genuine barcode, leave the barcode field empty.

Entering a fabricated or invalid barcode can create more serious issues than submitting a product without a barcode. An incorrect barcode may cause your product to be matched with a record belonging to another brand or an entirely different product.

IHASHOP helps protect your Merchant Center account from bulk product rejections by preventing detected invalid barcodes from being sent to Google.

3. No Genuine Product Image Is Available

Symptom

One of the following warnings may appear in Merchant Center:

• Image not found
• Invalid image
• Placeholder image being used
• Product image is not suitable

Cause

A genuine product photograph may not have been uploaded.

When the product record uses only the system’s default image or a temporary placeholder, Google may not accept it as a genuine product image.

Google expects clear and authentic images that allow customers to see the product they are considering purchasing.

Solution

Upload a genuine photograph that accurately displays the product.

According to the source documentation, a recommended Google product image should:

• Be at least 800 × 800 pixels
• Have a white or simple background
• Contain no watermark
• Contain no price label
• Contain no promotional or advertising text

Make sure the image directly represents the product being sold.

After updating the image, wait for the product to be resubmitted manually or through automatic synchronization. Then review the result in Merchant Center Diagnostics.

4. Google Product Category Has Not Been Mapped

Symptom

Although the product appears to be published in Merchant Center, it may:

• Not appear in Google Shopping results
• Appear for incorrect searches
• Be matched with unrelated products
• Be placed in the wrong product group

Cause

The category in your IHASHOP store may not have been mapped to the appropriate category in Google’s product taxonomy.

Your store’s category structure and Google’s category system are different. Having a category name in your store may therefore not be sufficient.

The appropriate Google category should be selected so that Google can understand the product group more accurately.

Solution

Open the edit screen for the relevant category in the IHASHOP administration panel.

Select the most appropriate option from the Google category field.

Choose the most detailed subcategory possible instead of a broad top-level category.

For example, instead of selecting only:

Apparel

use a more specific mapping such as:

Apparel and Accessories → Clothing → Trousers

A precise and detailed category mapping helps Google evaluate products more accurately.

After completing the category mapping, synchronize the products again and review their status in Merchant Center.

5. Price Mismatch

Symptom

Merchant Center may display an error similar to:

“The price on the website does not match the submitted price.”

When the price received by Google differs from the price displayed to the customer on the product page, the product may be rejected or receive a warning.

Cause

There are two main possible causes of a price mismatch.

The first possibility is that the product price was recently changed in your store. Even when IHASHOP has submitted the updated price, Google may not yet have processed the new data.

The second possibility is that there is an actual difference between the price shown on the product page and the price submitted to Merchant Center.

This difference may result from:

• Tax-inclusive and tax-exclusive price displays
• Member-only pricing
• A difference between the storefront price and the submitted price
• Google not yet processing the latest update

Solution

When the price was changed recently, wait for several hours first.

Google Merchant Center may require time to reprocess the updated product data. Seeing the old price immediately after changing it in the store may be normal.

When the issue continues after several hours, open the product page and check the price displayed to customers.

Make sure that the product-page price matches the price submitted to Google.

When member-specific or visitor-dependent pricing is used, the price visible to Google may differ from the submitted price.

After correcting the prices, wait for synchronization to complete and review the Merchant Center Diagnostics screen again.

6. Domain Has Not Been Verified or Claimed

Symptom

You may experience one of the following issues:

• Products are not processed
• A domain warning appears in Merchant Center
• A website verification error is displayed
• A domain claim error occurs

Cause

Google Merchant Center needs to confirm that the website submitting the products belongs to the store owner.

When the store domain has not been verified by Google or claimed in the Merchant Center account, product processing may be blocked.

Solution

First, follow the steps in the “Google Search Console and Site Verification” article to verify your store domain.

After verification is completed, open the website section in Google Merchant Center and claim the verified domain for your Merchant Center account.

Once domain verification and claiming have been completed, wait for the products to be processed again.

Recommended Order for Reviewing Merchant Center Rejections

When products are rejected, follow this sequence:

1. Open Google Merchant Center → Products → Diagnostics.
2. Check whether the issue affects one product or a large group of products.
3. Confirm that account-level shipping settings have been configured.
4. Verify that the store domain has been verified and claimed.
5. Confirm that products have genuine images.
6. Check whether barcodes are genuine and valid.
7. Make sure the barcode field is empty for products without a barcode.
8. Map store categories to Google product categories.
9. Compare the product-page price with the submitted price.
10. After making corrections, wait for Google to reprocess the products.

Merchant Center Checklist

Before submitting products, verify the following:

• Has a shipping service been configured in Merchant Center?
• Has the store domain been verified?
• Has the domain been claimed in the Merchant Center account?
• Do the products have genuine and suitable images?
• Are images with watermarks or promotional text being used?
• Are the entered barcodes genuine and valid?
• Is the barcode field empty for products without a barcode?
• Have store categories been mapped to Google categories?
• Does the product-page price match the submitted price?
• Is the number of errors in Merchant Center Diagnostics decreasing?

When Do Corrections Take Effect?

When you correct product information, the Merchant Center result may not update immediately.

Google must retrieve, process, and review the product again.

Therefore, after making changes to:

• Prices
• Images
• Barcodes
• Category mappings
• Domain verification
• Shipping settings

check the Merchant Center Diagnostics screen again at regular intervals.

A decrease in the number of errors indicates that Google has begun processing your corrections.

Next Step

After resolving Merchant Center product rejections, continue with the “Google Analytics 4 (GA4) Setup” article to measure visitor and sales activity in your store.

This article explains how to enter the GA4 measurement ID into the IHASHOP administration panel and verify that tracking is working.