# The 17 Google Merchant Listings Fields Generic Validators Miss

Generic JSON-LD validators green-light Product schema that Google's Shopping Graph rejects. The Merchant-specific subset — shippingDetails, hasMerchantReturnPolicy, energyEfficiencyCategory, pricePerUnit, global identifiers — has its own rulebook, and as of 2026 Google enforces it more strictly for EU listings.

Author: J.A. Watte
Published: May 2, 2026
Source: https://jwatte.com/blog/blog-tool-merchant-listings-audit/

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Product schema that validates cleanly in schema.org's tool often fails Google's Merchant Listings requirements. Free Listings, Shopping ads, and the new AI Shopping answers all pull from a stricter subset that demands specific sub-objects.

[Merchant Listings Audit](/tools/merchant-listings-audit/) fetches any product URL, pulls every `Product` JSON-LD object from the page, and checks the 17 Merchant-specific properties in one pass.

## The properties that aren't obvious

**shippingDetails.** Required for physical goods. Must be an `OfferShippingDetails` object with `shippingRate`, `shippingDestination` (with `addressCountry`), and `deliveryTime`. A price-only offer without shippingDetails is ineligible for Free Listings.

**hasMerchantReturnPolicy.** Also required for physical goods. Must include `applicableCountry`, `returnPolicyCategory`, and `merchantReturnDays` where applicable. Google's 2026 enforcement update means missing return policy = listing hidden in most markets.

**energyEfficiencyCategory (EU, 2026).** Required for covered categories (electronics, appliances, light bulbs) for EU listings starting March 2026. Missing = delisted in DE/FR/IT/ES.

**pricePerUnit.** Required for many EU product categories. Absent = delisted.

**Global identifier (gtin / mpn / isbn / productID).** At least one is required for branded products. Google uses these to match your listing against its catalog, classify it, and surface competitive listings alongside yours.

**itemCondition.** `NewCondition` / `UsedCondition` / `RefurbishedCondition`. Missing = treated as unknown and ranked lower.

## The strictly-optional-but-strongly-recommended set

`aggregateRating` and `review`. These don't make or break listing eligibility, but every competitor with them ranks above every competitor without. If you sell anything reviewable, you need to capture and emit reviews.

## How the audit helps

The tool parses your page's Product JSON-LD, checks every one of the 17 properties, and for each missing or malformed field, generates an AI fix prompt that emits a corrected JSON-LD block with bracketed placeholders you fill in with real values. Copy, paste, replace the current schema, ship.

## Related reading

- [Schema Validator](/tools/schema-validator/) — generic JSON-LD validator
- [Schema Fix Bundle](/tools/schema-fix-bundle/) — emits complete Product schema from inputs
- [E-E-A-T Audit](/tools/eeat-analyzer/) — authorship / org schema for broader trust signal

## Fact-check notes and sources

- Google Product structured data: [developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/product](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/product)
- Merchant Listing markup: [developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/merchant-listing](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/merchant-listing)
- EU energy labelling regulation 2023/2333: [eur-lex.europa.eu](https://eur-lex.europa.eu/)
- Schema.org Product: [schema.org/Product](https://schema.org/Product)

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*The $20 Dollar Agency covers building Shopping Graph compliance into every e-commerce client audit. The tool is the pre-ship check.*


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