Google Base rules/requirements seem to zig or zag without any notice. The latest example? A couple days ago a merchant could list Google Checkout as a payment option in their Google Base feed (bulk upload) in the payment_accepted field. In fact, Google Checkout is still listed as an example in the instructions for the payment_accepted field…without any special notes.

google base google checkout

Well, it turns out that the instructions need to be revised. Google has been rejecting feeds with the completely useless message: “To accept Google Checkout, you must first sign up for a Google Checkout account.” That doesn’t happen to help. The merchants in question accept Google Checkout. Upon further investigation, it turns out that merchants are only supposed to list Google Checkout in the payment_accepted field if they use Checkout for Google Base hosted items. Otherwise list Google Checkout in the payment_notes field.

The official word from a Google rep: “Please know that you are receiving this error for the items in your bulk upload because you have included the value ‘GoogleCheckout’ under the ‘payment_accepted’ attribute. To resolve this problem, you must include the Google Checkout payment option under the “payment_notes” attribute, rather than the “payment_accepted” attribute. Including Google Checkout under the “payment_accepted” attribute should only be used by those who do not have Google Checkout on their site and would like to use Google Base hosted item pages displaying a Google Checkout ‘Buy’ button.”

If you accept Google Checkout and haven’t logged into your Google Base account lately, make sure to take a look and list Checkout under payment_notes.

Related Posts
-Google Base – The Comparison Shopping Story of Q1 2007 – January 12, 2007
-Google Checkout Increases Troops – January 17, 2007