Goal: Export your Shopify products as a tab-delimited text file that meets Google Shopping Feed requirements, ready for direct upload to Google Merchant Center.
Prerequisites:
You have Altera installed on your Shopify store
Your products contain the details Google expects (brand, GTIN, images, etc.)
You are logged into Shopify with permission to use Apps
Step 1 - Open the Export Wizard
In your Shopify admin, go to Apps and open Altera. Click New Export.
Step 2 - Select Products Data Type
In Data types, select Products.
The Google Shopping Feed format only supports products, so other data types will be automatically disabled when you select the format.
Step 3 - Choose Google Shopping Feed Format
Under File format, select Google Shopping Feed from the dropdown menu.
When this format is selected, you won't be able to add additional data types or apply recipe-based data transformations. This ensures 100% compliance with Google's specification.
Step 4 - Configure Export Settings
Review your export settings. You can optionally set the export to Public if you want to generate a shareable URL for automated feed updates in Google Merchant Center.
To change the id of the feed items, open Advanced options and select a Google Shopping item ID: Variant SKU (default), Variant ID, or Shopify long ID. See Google Shopping Item ID for when to use each one.
To leave out variants that are out of stock, select Exclude out-of-stock items under Advanced options. See Exclude Out-of-Stock Items.
Filters on variant fields, such as Variant SKU or Variant Inventory Qty, limit the feed to the matching variants, because each variant is its own item.
Click Start Export to begin processing your catalog.
Outcome
You'll receive a .txt file containing one row per product variant with all required Google Shopping columns. The file is ready for direct upload to Google Merchant Center or can be used as an automated feed URL if set to public.
Important Notes
Google Shopping Requirements:
Each variant appears as a separate row in the feed
Each variant row has the product's description, without HTML and cut to 5,000 characters
image_linkis the variant's image. A variant without an image gets the first image of the productadditional_image_linklists up to 10 other images of the productsale_priceis only filled when the variant's compare-at price is higher than its price. Thenpriceis the compare-at price andsale_priceis the variant priceValues in
mm-google-shoppingmetafields take precedence over these columns. A variant metafield takes precedence over a product metafield. See How to Import and Export Google Shopping MetafieldsRequired fields include: id, title, description, link, image_link, availability, price, brand, gtin, mpn
Products missing required data may be rejected by Google Merchant Center
Images must be publicly accessible URLs (not password-protected)
Feed Updates:
Set your export to Public in Altera to get a shareable feed URL
Use this URL in Google Merchant Center for automatic feed updates
Google recommends updating feeds at least every 30 days
Next Steps
Upload your feed to Google Merchant Center
Review any feed warnings or errors in Merchant Center
Set up automated feed updates using the public URL option