Google Merchant Center has updated its landing page requirements for Shopping ads, impacting how retailers present out-of-stock products. The new policy mandates that when a product is not available, the buy button on the landing page must be both grayed out and disabled, making it unclickable. Hiding the button or leaving it active is no longer compliant.
To align with Google’s requirements, merchants need to ensure the button is visibly disabled using the HTML “disabled” attribute or equivalent platform functionality. This change means shoppers will clearly see that purchasing is not possible, helping prevent accidental purchases of unavailable items. Additionally, the landing page’s availability status must match what’s shown in your data feed to avoid policy violations.
If businesses want to keep taking orders for unavailable products, switching to a “back order” status is now required, and this must be reflected on both the page and the feed. The update could have a significant operational impact, especially for stores accustomed to hiding buttons or keeping them active with zero inventory.
Watch Emmanuel Flossie’s video with more information and how to implement it.
