Availability is a Google Shopping Feed attribute. It tells Google whether an item in your shopping feed is currently available for purchase. This attribute is required for all products.

Another attribute that we’ll discuss in this blog is the availability date attribute. This is an optional attribute. It only applies to items that are unavailable on a given day but will be available later.

The Availability Shopping Feed Attribute

We’ve already mentioned that this attribute is compulsory for all Stock Keeping Units (SKUs) in your shopping feed. Google will only show available products in free and paid shopping results. 

Accurate product availability information can help boost shopper experience and customer loyalty.

When you use the availability attribute, use up-to-date and accurate product information. For instance, when an item is back in stock, promptly update its availability. Here’s a post that lists some of the tools that you can use to manage and update your shopping feed.

Set updated and accurate shipping settings so that each available item also ships to the country that you are targeting. For instance, you could have an in-stock SKU in the US, but it is not in stock in Canada. Submit different feeds for different countries to prevent any mixups.

How it works

We know there are only two basic possibilities; that an item is available for immediate purchase or it is not. But sometimes an item is not in stock now, but it will be in stock at a known date. Or it will be stocked again in the future but we’re not certain about the exact date. That’s why Google set four different values for the availability attribute;

  • Out of stock – Set the “availability” attribute to [out_of_stock], if the product is currently unavailable for purchase, and you aren’t taking backorders. Google excludes out-of-stock SKUs from its shopping search results.
  • Backorder – Set this if the product is currently out of stock but you know that they’ll be in stock at some point and you’re taking backorders. Orders will be fulfilled once items are in stock.  You can use this attribute if you know the items in question will become available, but you’re unsure when.
  • Preorder –  Sometimes a product is not immediately available for purchase but will be at a later date. If your store accepts preorders for such items, set availability to  “preorder.” Google displays such items with a “Pre-order” label in their shopping search results.

When you use the [preorder] value, you must also use the “availability date” attribute. We’ll discuss this attribute in a later section of this post.

  • In stock – Use this value if the item is readily available for purchase and can be shipped immediately after receiving the order. Google displays such products with an “In stock” label in their Shopping results. When customers see the label, they know that if they place an order, the item is already available for delivery.

How to hide in-stock products

If an item is in stock but you don’t want it shown in Google Shopping, you can use the [excluded_destination] attribute. Its supported values are;

  • Shopping ads 
  • Display ads
  • Local inventory ads
  • Free listings
  • Free local listings

Alternatively, you can use the pause [pause] attribute to stop showing items for up to 14 days. Supported values for this attribute are;

  • Ads [ads]; It pauses a product from showing up on all ad locations (display, local inventory, and shopping ads)
  • All [all]; It pauses a product from showing on all shopping locations including ads, free listings, and buy on Google

The Availability Date Shopping Feed Attribute

If a product is available for preorder, you are required to use the [availability date] attribute. This attribute is optional for backordered items. Shoppers may choose to place preorders or backorders if the availability date is convenient. 

Style the date in the format YYYY-MM-DD (2024-11-25). You can include time so that the format becomes YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm format (e.g., 2024-11-25T12:00). Just provide the date and not the time to avoid any complexities that may arise because of multiple time zones within a country.

Availability date appears beneath the product description in Google Shopping results. It is specifically intended for pre-ordered and backordered products. Don’t use it for items with in-stock or out-of-stock status.

Additional considerations

  • Specify availability and availability date for each variant where applicable. 
  • Leverage automated feed updates for availability and availability date so that the feed is always accurate
  • You can include the availability date on product titles to promote preorders. To learn how to write product titles, read the linked post.

Conclusion

Keep your product information up-to-date on Google Shopping with the “availability” and “availability date” attributes. Update these attributes regularly to enhance your Google Shopping results. There are many other ways to improve your shopping performance. Check out this post about how to audit your Google Merchant Center account.