Feed error
Item disapprovedMissing shipping information
The "Missing shipping information" or "Missing value [shipping]" issue means Merchant Center has no shipping cost for a product in a country where one is required, so the item cannot show there. On Shopify it usually means the store's shipping rates never reached Merchant Center, or sit in a profile that does not sync.
How this appears in your account
The exact wording the channel shows, so you can match what you are looking at.
- Missing value [shipping]
- Missing shipping information
- Missing shipping costs
- Some of your products are missing shipping costs. These products won't show to customers until you add a shipping cost.
What it affects
- Channels
- Google Shopping Microsoft Advertising
- Scope
- The whole feed
Why it happens on Shopify
No shipping policy exists for the target country
Shipping costs are required for Shopping ads and free listings in a long list of countries, including the US, the UK, Germany, Canada and Australia. A feed that targets one of them without a matching account-level shipping policy has every item flagged at once.
The rates live in a custom Shopify shipping profile
When shipping is imported through Shopify's Google & YouTube channel, only the rates in the General shipping profile sync. Products assigned to a custom profile arrive in Merchant Center without a cost, or with one that does not match the store.
A new market was added without a shipping zone
Automatic import only works for countries that have a shipping zone set up in Shopify. Enabling a new country as a target before giving it a zone leaves that country's offers with nothing to show.
A shipping app calculates rates at checkout only
Third-party shipping apps that quote live at checkout may not expose their rates to Merchant Center at all. The storefront charges shipping correctly while Merchant Center has no figure to display.
A product-level shipping value is malformed
Where the feed submits the shipping attribute itself, a missing country sub-attribute or a price without a currency invalidates the value, and the item is treated as having no shipping cost.
How to fix it
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Check which countries are affected
Filter the issue by country in Merchant Center. Every item in one country points at a missing policy for that country; a scattered subset points at shipping profiles or individual product values.
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Set up shipping at account level first
Create a shipping policy in Merchant Center's shipping and returns settings for each target country, either imported from Shopify or entered by hand. Google recommends account-level settings as the default and the shipping attribute only for exceptions.
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Move products into the General shipping profile, or add the rates manually
If you rely on the Google & YouTube channel import, products in custom Shopify profiles will not carry correct rates. Either consolidate them into the General profile or recreate those rates in Merchant Center directly.
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Overestimate slightly where rates cannot be reproduced exactly
Live carrier quotes and app-calculated rates rarely map one to one onto Merchant Center tables. Google's guidance is to overestimate slightly rather than show a cost lower than the shopper pays at checkout.
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Use the shipping attribute only for genuine exceptions
Bulky or fragile items that cost more to send can carry a product-level shipping value with country, service and price. Submitting a price there overrides the account settings for that product, so keep it to the items that really differ.
How feedlab handles this
feedlab can populate the shipping attribute with conditional rules, for example a fixed surcharge for products in a bulky-goods collection, while leaving everything else to the account-level policy. Validation before publish flags rows whose shipping value lacks a country or currency, so a malformed override never reaches the channel.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to add shipping to every product in my feed?
No. Account-level shipping settings in Merchant Center cover every product in a country. The product-level shipping attribute is meant for exceptions such as oversized items, not as the main way to supply costs.
Why do my Shopify shipping rates not show up in Merchant Center?
The Google & YouTube channel only syncs rates from the General shipping profile, and only for countries with a shipping zone. Rates in custom profiles or from checkout-only shipping apps need to be set up in Merchant Center by hand.
Can I just enter free shipping to clear the error?
Only if shipping really is free. The cost shown on Google must not be lower than what the shopper pays at checkout, so entering zero for paid shipping trades this issue for a misrepresentation risk.
Related errors
- Missing value: shipping weight The "Missing value [shipping_weight]" issue means the account calculates shipping from weight, through carrier-calculated rates or a weight-based table, but a product arrived without a shipping weight. On Shopify the variant weight is usually zero or blank, or never mapped into the feed.
- Mismatched currency A mismatched currency issue means the currency in the feed does not agree with the landing page, the shipping settings or the market being targeted. On a Shopify Markets store it usually means one feed in the store currency is sent to several countries while the storefront shows each visitor local prices.
- Misrepresentation A Misrepresentation suspension means Google judged that your store could mislead shoppers about who you are, what you sell or what a purchase costs. On Shopify it usually traces to thin trust signals: missing contact details or return policy, an unclear business identity, costs revealed late or overstated claims.
Primary sources
Channel specifications change. These are the official documents this page is based on.