Google is constantly changing the status of several “This Brand requires a GTIN” messages from warnings (amber) to outright disapprovals (red).
You may notice an increase in your daily error reports from us as a result of these.
Whenever this happens we add the Brand to a list and our system automatically excludes all products which do not have a valid GTIN (aka UPC or barcode).
However, there are some brands where Google has not applied this universally – and in these cases, where a client’s inventory listing would be severely reduced were we to introduce the check, we have manually excluded individual disapproved items.
If Google does start to disapprove all products associated with these brands we will then add it to our list and will advise any customers affected of the change.
As I have mentioned previously, I think it is only a matter of time before this becomes a mandatory requirement for the vast majority of products, as it is already for some market places (e.g. Amazon and e-bay). While some products do not have such attributes and can be submitted with an identifier to say that this is the case, most modern mass produced goods do.
We recommend that you start to gather this data from suppliers and/or from your in stock inventory and work with us and/or your web developers to ensure that your data includes GTINs.
You can always check our error reports for any Brands which are now asking for these to be compliant with Google’s latest listing policies.
As always, please contact us if you have any questions on this.
