Choose a product ID format

Google identifies each product by its id. If the ID changes, Google treats the product as brand new: it loses its reviews, impressions, clicks and conversions history, and has to be approved again from scratch.

Set the format in Settings → Tracking & Identifiers → Product ID format, before your first sync. Once products have been published, the choice is locked and the section shows “Locked — this shop has already synced products to Google Merchant Center.”

Format	Example ID	Choose it when
Variant ID (recommended)	44012345678901	You’ve never submitted these products to Google before. The Shopify variant ID never changes, even if you edit the SKU.
SKU	TEE-BLU-M	Your previous feed app used SKUs as IDs. Every variant must have a SKU, and changing a SKU later changes its Google identity.
Shopify format	shopify_US_8123456789_44012345678901	You’re moving from Shopify’s own Google & YouTube sales channel and want to keep its history.
Product + Variant combo	8123456789_44012345678901	Your previous app used product ID + variant ID without the country prefix.

Not sure which format you use today?

In Merchant Center, open Products → All products and look at the ID column of a few items. Compare them with the examples above and pick the one that matches exactly.

Next: create your first feed.