Google adds new product category, sale properties for e-commerce

Image credit: Abondance

Google introduced new structured data properties for product listings Tuesday, allowing e-commerce businesses greater control over categorization and the display of sale periods in search results.

The updates aim to improve the reliability and accuracy of product information presented to users, linking Schema.org markup directly with existing Merchant Center attributes.

Google added a new ‘category’ property to its Product structured data, enabling merchants to specify product types using either free text or a CategoryCode object.

This ‘category’ property supports multiple values, including numeric Google Product Category (GPC) IDs, full GPC category paths, and customized free-text categories, according to information released by Google.

Additionally, three new properties—’priceValidUntil’, ‘validFrom’, and ‘validThrough’—have been implemented to precisely indicate the start and end dates of product sale periods.

These sale duration properties utilize the ISO 8601 format for date specification, offering a standardized method for communicating promotional timelines.

Google stated that these new properties connect Schema.org markup with Merchant Center attributes such as product_type, google_product_category, and sale_price_effective_date.

While the use of these enhanced properties is not mandatory, Google recommends their adoption to optimize how product details appear in search results.

The placement of the new sale duration properties depends on the existing markup structure, Google noted. They can be applied either directly on the Offer node or on a separate PriceSpecification node within the structured data.

The company said in a statement that these additions are designed to give online retailers more tools for managing their product visibility and promotional messaging across Google’s platforms.

Source: Abondance