Merchant Centre – Transferring Manually Added Products To Google Sheets Feed
I have inherited an e-com account that has been using the Google Merchant Centre as it’s product source. Up to date, all products have been added manually.
I would like to move away from this method and instead setup a Google Sheet source. In order to have everything under one roof, I would like to move the existing products to this data source as well.
Is there a way I can easily transfer these products to the Google Sheet instead? I’d like to avoid manually re-adding all these products.
The short answer is:
While there’s no native “Export to Google Sheets” button for manually added products in the Google Merchant Center interface, you can leverage the Google Content API for Shopping (specifically the products service) to programmatically pull your existing product data, and then pipe that data into a Google Sheet using a third-party tool or a custom script on a platform like Google Cloud Platform (GCP).
The core solution involves using the products.
list method of the Content API for Shopping to retrieve the full catalog of manually entered items, which are treated the same as feed-submitted items by the API.
Once the structured data is retrieved as a JSON object, it’s a straightforward process to map the product attributes to the columns of a new Google Sheet that will serve as your primary feed, effectively transferring your data and establishing a scalable, automated feed system.
The long answer is:
The optimal and most technical solution to transfer your manually added products from Google Merchant Center (GMC) to a Google Sheets-based feed is by implementing a solution that utilizes the Google Content API for Shopping, which provides programmatic access to your GMC data and is a cost-effective, scalable choice compared to manual data entry or expensive commercial connectors.
You will specifically use the products service within this API; while manual items are entered via the user interface, they are stored and retrievable via the same API endpoint as feed-submitted items, making them accessible for bulk extraction.
The necessary method is products.
list, which allows you to page through your entire product catalog and pull all the details for every item you have manually entered.
A custom solution built on Google Cloud Platform (GCP) is highly recommended for this process, as you can deploy a Cloud Function triggered on a schedule or an ad-hoc basis.
This function would authenticate with the Google Content API for Shopping, execute the $\text{products.
list}$ call to retrieve all product data, and then process the resulting JSON data structure.
You would then use the Google Sheets API within the same function to write this parsed, structured product data directly into a new, correctly formatted Google Sheet.
This two-part API integration – Google Content API for Shopping for extraction and Google Sheets API for insertion – seamlessly achieves your goal.
This method eliminates the need to manually re-add every product, saves significant time, and transitions your product management to a centralized, easily auditable Google Sheet that can be set as your new primary feed source in GMC.
Integrating with the Google Merchant API and potentially the BigQuery API also offers future cost-effectiveness, as it allows for advanced inventory synchronization, error logging, and the creation of rich product performance dashboards in Looker Studio by exporting your Google Analytics 4 (GA4) e-commerce data alongside your product catalog, all within the Google ecosystem and without recurring per-product fees often associated with third-party tools.
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