New Google feed requirements and 3dcart not helping

[SunshineDaydream]

:mad: :mad: :mad:

Whats up with 3dcart??? The new google requirements have been posted for a few months. Why haven't you guys done anything yet??? The holidays are fast approaching as you guys know because you keep pluggin different partners to use this holiday season.

Some of my items are not being included because of missing size and color attributes.

From your website :
3DCart Shopping Cart is fully compatible with Google Base Shopping Engine

That's a bit misleading. "FULLY COMPATIBLE"? I sell apparel and I must include size and color in my feed. I know I can use the extra fields but that means I have to make each size of a certain shirt a separate item with its own sku or id.

Your tech support tells me to use godata feed (another added expense:( , which I am doing), and I talked to Godata feed. They have a solution and have done it for other carts that they partner with.

BUT - They are waiting on you guys to do something on your end.

I like 3dcart and its features, but if its going to cost me business because I can't get all of my products listed with Google, then I am going to jump ship to another cart. I am sure I am not alone on this ....

[ElegantWeddings]

From your website :
3DCart Shopping Cart is fully compatible with Google Base Shopping Engine

That's a bit misleading. "FULLY COMPATIBLE"?

Notice it says "Google Base" - which was older version of google product submit and now obsolete. Therefore, the statement is not misleading.

We modified our feed to accommodate the new google requirements using Extra Fields from 3D cart and Spreadsheets manipulation. Once you get it going it is not very time consuming at all. We do this for two websites with 5000 products or more on each.

[SunshineDaydream]

Notice it says "Google Base" - which was older version of google product submit and now obsolete. Therefore, the statement is not misleading.

We modified our feed to accommodate the new google requirements using Extra Fields from 3D cart and Spreadsheets manipulation. Once you get it going it is not very time consuming at all. We do this for two websites with 5000 products or more on each.

Not misleading? So following your logic about it being "Google Base", 3Dcart is trying to get new customers, and are promoting that they are compatible with a service that is "obsolete" which then makes it "deceptive advertising" which is actually worse...

You say its not very time consuming and you did it with no problem. I checked out your website a little and didn't notice any clothing items. When you have clothes, there are separate requirements from Google such as size and color. Every item and each size and/or color has to have its own line in the google feed.
If I sell a Grateful Dead T-shirt, and it comes in 2 different colors and 4 different sizes, I have to have 8 seperate item id's for this shirt.

So, I am sorry but it is VERY time consuming for apparel retailers, not too mention I don't know how to implement this easily. Even Godata feed (who specialize in feed generation), said the new requirements are a bigger problem for apparel retailers than non apparel retailers.

[ElegantWeddings]

I don't really want to argue on behalf of 3DCart and how they market their product; Yes, I agree they should do something to make the process more up to date to comply with new GMC changes. They will do it if enough people request it in UserVoice or put in new feature request. If 3DCart have 12K+ carts I am sure everyone is in the same boat for submitting products to Google Search engine. Ranting in the forum is good but I doubt it is heard by 3DCart.

For the time being, we do have items that have colour size etc, and we do submit to GMC products feed. If you know Excel or other spreadsheets you can achieve this with spending a little time on it.

[SunshineDaydream]

Ranting in the forum is good but I doubt it is heard by 3DCart.

I thought that's what forums were for - discussions and rants.

I think 3dcart does indeed "hear" these rants in this forum. Remember all the "Bandwidth" (oops did I say a bad word? ;) ) issues a few months back? They heard that! They even locked down some of topic posts regarding it and Gil even replied in the forum to some of these bandwidth problems.

If they have 12K+ cart customers, I am sure some are in the same boat. If I can stir things up a bit and get more customers to complain about this issue, both in this forum and directly to them, then maybe, just maybe this problem will get solved quicker.

The squeaky wheel gets greased and I am feeling pretty squeaky!:D

[InsnWizard]

[quote=SunshineDaydream;19562]:mad: :mad: :mad:

Some of my items are not being included because of missing size and color attributes.

The fields are generic. You can put almost anything you want in the field. Multiple for color, or red/green/blue
n/a for size, or sm,or xl, or 15/16".
Google does not care what is in these fields as long as you put something in the field.

And why is it 3D's fault because you didn't put in the information. It does say the information is missing.

These 3 fields for apparel you have to get right are:
google_product_category age_group gender

[SunshineDaydream]

:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

The fields are generic. You can put almost anything you want in the field. Multiple for color, or red/green/blue
n/a for size, or sm,or xl, or 15/16".
Google does not care what is in these fields as long as you put something in the field.

And why is it 3D's fault because you didn't put in the information. It does say the information is missing.

These 3 fields for apparel you have to get right are:
google_product_category age_group gender

Am I missing something?? If I am wrong I will fess up, BUT I do not think I am.

You say for apparel you only have to get the above 3 right? What about size?, color?, etc.

Google doesn't care whats in those fields as long as its something? Really? They are analyzing the feeds and your whole feed could get dropped if don't follow their rules exactly. Did you read the feed requirements from Google for apparel sellers (which are different than non apparel sellers)?
Here's the link to google:

Submitting Apparel Products - Google Merchant Center Help

Once again (if I am understanding it right), If you sell a shirt in 2 colors and 4 sizes, you have to have 8 separate items in your feed EACH WITH DIFF. ID"S, otherwise that shirt will NOT show up in Google product search.

It IS 3D's fault because they have NOT updated their Google feed generator to take into account these issues completely. They provide extra fields and those fields will work for age group and gender, but NOT for size and color

On top of that, when I asked 3D tech support, I was told that I should try Godata as they are a partner and feed generator and can help. Well guess what? I talked to them and they have a solution but are waiting on 3Dcart to do something on their backend. Until 3D does whatever they have to, Godata can't implement their solution.

Other carts have and are doing something about these new requirements, but 3Dcart is silent on the subject.
So, for those of you that are coming to bat for 3Dcart, how about showing me how to do what needs to be done??? How do I take 1 product and turn it into 8 different products (for Googles sake) without creating 8 new items on my website.

Any 3Dcart apparel retailers out there that understand what I am saying? And if so, did you figure out a solution?

[InsnWizard]

:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:



Am I missing something?? If I am wrong I will fess up, BUT I do not think I am.

You say for apparel you only have to get the above 3 right? What about size?, color?, etc.

Google doesn't care whats in those fields as long as its something? Really? They are analyzing the feeds and your whole feed could get dropped if don't follow their rules exactly. Did you read the feed requirements from Google for apparel sellers (which are different than non apparel sellers)?
Here's the link to google:

Submitting Apparel Products - Google Merchant Center Help

Once again (if I am understanding it right), If you sell a shirt in 2 colors and 4 sizes, you have to have 8 separate items in your feed EACH WITH DIFF. ID"S, otherwise that shirt will NOT show up in Google product search.

It IS 3D's fault because they have NOT updated their Google feed generator to take into account these issues completely. They provide extra fields and those fields will work for age group and gender, but NOT for size and color

On top of that, when I asked 3D tech support, I was told that I should try Godata as they are a partner and feed generator and can help. Well guess what? I talked to them and they have a solution but are waiting on 3Dcart to do something on their backend. Until 3D does whatever they have to, Godata can't implement their solution.

Other carts have and are doing something about these new requirements, but 3Dcart is silent on the subject.
So, for those of you that are coming to bat for 3Dcart, how about showing me how to do what needs to be done??? How do I take 1 product and turn it into 8 different products (for Googles sake) without creating 8 new items on my website.

Any 3Dcart apparel retailers out there that understand what I am saying? And if so, did you figure out a solution?

Yeah I actually have read it, have been for weeks now, and I have set it up for other people here. Your screaming in multiple posts and throwing little smiley's in them for color and amusement isn't going to fix your feed.

At the moment we have to deal with what we have and make the most of it. If you spent half the time fixing your feed as you do with all the posts you might have a working feed.

Google didn't just spring this up over night. They did put out a notice for it. I worked on mine from the start to get it the way it works without all the crying.

If this now becomes a catastrophe because they are going to start enforcing it there is no one to blame but oneself for not doing anything until it becomes enforceable hoping that someone else was going to fix the problem.

[SunshineDaydream]

The little :D humors me. What are they there for? I thought they were there to use. :eek:

As far as my multiple posts go, well like I said I believe that the squeaky wheel gets greased.. and if I can stir things up enough and reach more people and that it gets the problem solved, then perfect! My problem is not just my problem, its many apparel customers here, so solving it helps many of their customers.

And if they can't or won't be, then get out in front of this problem and COMMUNICATE WITH US. :confused:

Your darn right someone else should fix the problem, because that's what I am paying for.

A few of you are saying its all my fault (because god forbid I should expect my cart provider to do what they promote and advertise they do, and what I pay for ) but no one is commenting on this:

As far as me not doing it myself, once again I use Godata which 3Dcart recommended and suggested. I talked to them. They have a solution but their hands are tied until 3Dcart does whatever is needed on their end. So the ball is still back in their court

And yes this is a big deal to me and other customers I'm sure (I'm just more vocal than some).

Overall I really like 3Dcart, and even suggested it to people, but this Google thing is something that they really need to take care of and INFORM their customers.:)

[3dcart-Henry]

Hello all.

While there is always room for healthy discussion on the forums, we feel the need to step in at this time and help cool this topic down a bit…

First, some information and clarifications:


As many have pointed out thus far, the majority of changes required by Google are possible through customizations to the fields in the product feed file and can be done with minimal effort. The main exception to this is in regards to apparel products


Although there is no set time frame, we are currently working on a contingency to address the Google product feed changes that are affecting merchants with apparel products. At present, it is a work in progress, so there are no substantial details I can offer at this time. Rest assured we are working on it.


As for GoDataFeed, it’s true that we are working with them to help provide a solution as well. However, it is not a question of them waiting on us “to fix something” or anything alluding to 3dcart being a roadblock with their integration. On the contrary, we have a scheduled site visit with them coming up soon in order to discuss and develop a solution that will work well with both systems.


As for the multiple forum postings on multiple threads, I once again will reference our Forum Posting Rules. The 3dcart Forum is intended as a learning environment for 3dcart users to exchange tips and knowledge. While we try our best to maintain a presence on the forum as much as possible to help in this process, our main areas of concentration are within the customer support portal to address issues and the feature request portal to help develop the software offering. Therefore, posting multiple times within multiple threads in order to get something fixed may not always have the desired effect. For technical issues and situations where there may be dissatisfaction with the service, please submit these either through our support channels or by emailing our CEO directly at – [email protected]


Thank you all for your time and understanding.

[InsnWizard]

Thanks Henry.