Why are my availability details not being updated correctly?

Availability in Merchant Center goes out of date when your product data is updated less often than your stock changes, or when your landing page tells Google something different from your data source. Google expects the availability value in your product data to always match your website. Automatic item updates can fix occasional mismatches, but according to Google they do not replace regular updates of your product data.

The result is a product shown as in stock in Shopping ads that is sold out on your site, or the other way round. If Google detects a mismatch, it may disapprove the product instead of updating it.

Why does availability stop matching your website?

• Data source updated too rarely. A scheduled feed that is fetched once a day cannot keep up with stock that changes several times a day. Every change between two fetches creates a mismatch.
• Automatic updates hit their limits. Google says automations may not work for products whose price or availability changes more than once per day, and that updates may stop if the total number of mismatches becomes too large.
• Structured data missing or generated too late. Automatic updates read the markup on your product page. Google requires it to be in the HTML returned by the server; markup added with JavaScript after the page has loaded is not used.
• Several offers on one page. If a page shows several variants, each offer must carry a SKU or GTIN that matches the id or gtin in your product data. Otherwise Google cannot tell which variant is meant.
• Wrong value for the situation. Google supports in_stock, out_of_stock, preorder and backorder. For preorder and backorder you also need availability_date. Deleting a product to hide it is not recommended; set it to out_of_stock or use the pause attribute instead, because adding a deleted offer back takes a long time.
• Page differs by visitor. If price or availability on the page changes based on IP address or browser, Google may see something different from your customers.

How do I fix it step by step?

1. Find the affected products. Check the product issues in Merchant Center for availability mismatches and note which products and variants are affected.
2. Compare three places. For one affected product, compare the value in your data source, the value in the structured data of the page and the text a visitor sees. All three must say the same.
3. Update more often. Increase the fetch frequency of your data source. If availability changes several times a day, Google recommends the Merchant API, so your shop system can send changes as they happen.
4. Fix the markup. Output Product and Offer markup as JSON-LD in the server HTML, with availability, price and, for variants, SKU or GTIN. Check the page with the Rich Results Test.
5. Keep automatic updates on. Leave automatic updates for availability enabled as a safety net, not as your main update channel.
6. Check again. After the next fetch, look at the issues again and confirm the number of affected products goes down.

What does Google count as a match?

For automatic updates Google uses relaxed matching. According to Google, in_stock, preorder and backorder are all treated as compatible with in_stock. If your data source says in_stock and the page says preorder, the product stays in_stock. A product your feed lists as in stock while the page says out of stock, however, is a real mismatch.

Update availability as often as your stock changes, ideally through the Merchant API, and make sure the server HTML of every product page carries the same value. Treat automatic updates as a backup.

If products are disapproved for other reasons as well, read why products are rejected in Merchant Center.

Sources

• Merchant Center Help: Availability [availability]
• Merchant Center Help: Allow Merchant Center to update product information automatically
• Merchant Center Help: Set up structured data for Merchant Center
• Google Search Central: Merchant listing structured data

Your Shopping ads keep showing products you no longer have in stock? We check your feed, your markup and your update schedule and set up a reliable sync. Book a free intro call or read more about our Google Ads management.