5 Product Feed Errors That Are Quietly Costing You Sales

Your product feed is like the engine of your car. If it’s broken, nothing else matters.

You can have perfect SEO. You can have killer ads. You can have a beautiful store. But if your products aren’t showing up in Google Shopping or Meta Catalog, you’re not reaching your audience.

I’m talking serious money. One client had $40,000 worth of products not showing up in Google Shopping. They didn’t notice for three months.

Here’s what breaks most product feeds and how to fix it.

Error #1: Products Missing From Google Shopping You Don’t Know About

This is the most expensive one because you have no idea it’s happening.

You upload your feed to Google Merchant Center. Everything looks fine. Two days later, Google removes 30% of your products from the platform. You never see a notification because you only check the dashboard once a quarter.

Meanwhile, those products aren’t showing up in Google Shopping.

Here’s why it happens: your product data doesn’t match Google’s requirements. Missing fields. Wrong values. Images that don’t meet standards.

Here’s what I’d actually do: log into Google Merchant Center every single week. Not every month. Every week.

Go to the Products tab. Look at the “Item issues” section. That’s where Google tells you which products have problems and why.

Common reasons:

• Missing required fields (title, description, image, price, availability, GTIN)
• Wrong format for price (it should be “19.99 USD” not “19.99”)
• Image quality issues (too small, blurry, wrong format)
• Missing or wrong product type
• Shipping information doesn’t match your actual shipping

Open that report. Read it. Fix the top 5 issues this week.

Error #2: Missing GTINs (Or Using Fake Ones)

GTIN stands for Global Trade Item Number. It’s the barcode thing. Most products have one.

If you’re selling something that has a real GTIN (almost anything that’s manufactured), Google wants it.

Not having it means your product is lower priority in Google Shopping. Incorrect ones mean Google flags them as errors.

A lot of store owners think, “I don’t know the GTIN, so I’ll just make one up.” Don’t do this.

Go find the real GTIN. Look at the product packaging. Google it. Call the manufacturer. It takes 5 minutes per product.

If the product doesn’t have a GTIN (maybe you made it yourself), it’s fine to skip it. But if it exists in the real world and has a barcode, find it.

Here’s the easy way: if you’re getting your products from a supplier, ask them for the GTIN when you order inventory. Make it part of your standard data you collect.

In Shopify, add a custom field called “GTIN” and fill it in as products come in.

Error #3: Price Mismatches Between Your Store and Your Feed

Your Shopify product says $29.99. Your feed says $34.99.

Google notices this. Customers notice this. Both are bad.

This usually happens because:

• You updated the price in Shopify but forgot to re-upload your feed
• Your Shopify feed has a markup applied that you don’t realize
• You’re using different currencies in different channels and didn’t convert properly
• You have a sale running in Shopify but your feed is showing full price

Here’s the fix: if you’re on Shopify, use the native Google Shopping feed integration. Don’t export a CSV and upload it manually. The native integration syncs automatically, so if you change a price, it updates in Google.

Check it weekly anyway. Go into Google Merchant Center and spot-check 10 random products. Do the prices match your Shopify store? If not, something’s broken.

Error #4: Shipping Information Is Missing or Wrong

Google wants to know shipping cost and delivery time. Meta wants to know shipping cost. If you don’t provide it, products get hidden or filtered out.

Worst case: a customer sees your product, clicks buy, gets to checkout, and sees a shipping cost that’s way higher than they expected. Now they’re mad. They leave. They leave a bad review.

Here’s what matters:

• Shipping country – Make sure you’re only showing products in countries you actually ship to
• Shipping cost – Should match your actual checkout shipping (or be very close)
• Shipping time – Should be realistic (if you say 2 days but it takes 7, customers get mad)
• Free shipping threshold – If you offer free shipping on orders over $50, include that

In Shopify’s Google Shopping integration, you can set shipping rules. Use them. Don’t just leave it blank and hope customers figure it out.

Error #5: Image Quality Issues That Make Products Look Bad

Your product image is too small. Or it’s blurry. Or it’s on a white background with a shadow that makes the product hard to see.

Google Shopping has specific requirements:

• Images need to be at least 100×100 pixels (ideally 800×800 or bigger)
• The main product needs to take up at least 50% of the image
• Backgrounds should be plain white or very light (no busy patterns)
• Blurry or low-quality images get flagged
• Lifestyle images don’t count as main product images

Here’s what I’d actually do: go through your top 20 best-selling products and check the image. Is it clear? Is it high enough resolution? Does it show the product straight on?

If the answer is no to any of these, retake the photo or find a better one.

This matters more than you think. Better images = more clicks in Google Shopping = more traffic = more sales.

How to Actually Find Your Feed Errors

Step 1: Log into Google Merchant Center

Step 2: Go to Products > Diagnostics

Step 3: You’ll see a list of issues. It’s organized by severity. Start with “Critical” issues—these are products that won’t show at all.

Step 4: Click on an issue. Google will tell you exactly which products have the problem and why.

Step 5: If it’s a Shopify store, go back into your Shopify product editor and fix the field that’s causing the issue. (It’s usually a missing field or wrong format.)

Step 6: Re-sync your feed. In Shopify, go to the Google channel and click “Sync products.” Wait 24 hours. Check Merchant Center again.

For Meta, the process is similar. Go to your Business Manager > Catalog > Diagnostics. Same idea.

The Real Cost of Feed Errors

Let’s say you’ve got 100 products. 30 of them are having issues in Google Shopping because of missing data.

Those 30 products might represent 20% of your revenue. If your store does $100k a month, that’s $20k in monthly revenue that’s not showing up in Google Shopping.

Over a year, that’s $240,000.

And you had no idea because you haven’t logged into Merchant Center in six months.

What to Do This Week

Log into Google Merchant Center. Look at the item issues. Pick the top 3 most common issues. Count how many products have them.

If it’s more than 10% of your catalog, fix them this week. If it’s less, add it to your list but don’t panic.

Then set a calendar reminder. Every Monday, spend 15 minutes checking your feed health.

It’s the difference between a store that works and one that doesn’t.

Product feed errors are one of the fastest problems to fix for the ROI you get. Fixing one broken product field can take 5 minutes. But it might add $500 a month in revenue. If you want someone to audit your feed and get everything working properly, let’s talk.