Every so often, Google makes a “quiet” change that can have a big ripple effect on how businesses run their digital storefronts. This month, we spotted one of those changes — and it’s one you’ll want to keep an eye on if you rely on Google Merchant Center for your e-commerce sales.

What Changed

Google now requires that product feeds in Merchant Center include your Google Business Profile (GBP) Shop ID.

At the time of writing, legacy feeds appear to still be accepted without the Shop ID. But as with most Google rollouts, this grace period won’t last forever. Once the requirement is enforced, any feed missing the Shop ID will likely run into disapprovals or disruptions.

Why This Matters

Your product feed is the backbone of your shopping ads and listings. If it breaks, your visibility in search results can vanish overnight. This change means:

• If you don’t have your Google Business Profile set up yet, your feed may be at risk.

• Adding the Shop ID prematurely, without a complete GBP setup, could also cause more issues than it solves.

Our Recommendation

For now: don’t make any changes to your feed until your Google Business Profile is fully set up and you have a Shop ID ready to add in.

Rushing to edit feeds without all the right pieces in place could lead to downtime, disapprovals, or inconsistent reporting.

What’s Next

We suspect this change may also cause issues with Shopify feeds in the near future. While the connection still appears to be working as expected, compatibility glitches are a common side-effect of new Google requirements — so we’re keeping a close eye on it.

We’ll continue monitoring updates and share new findings as they unfold.

Takeaway: Don’t ignore this change, but don’t rush into it either. Get your Google Business Profile and Shop ID in order now so you’re ready when Google flips the switch.