When creating a file to upload to Merchant Center, what format is accepted?
Correct Answer
A) Tab Delimited File Format
Key takeaways
Tab-delimited text is the accepted plain-text feed format, with attribute names in the first row.
Tabs are used because commas appear naturally inside product titles and descriptions.
XML and Google Sheets are also supported, and the Content API replaces file uploads at scale.
Why is this the correct answer?
Merchant Center reads plain text feeds in tab-delimited form, where the first row holds the attribute names and each following row is one product. Tabs are used rather than commas because product titles and descriptions frequently contain commas, which would break a comma-separated file. Alongside tab-delimited text, Merchant Center also accepts XML feeds and Google Sheets, and larger merchants often skip files altogether and push products through the Content API.
Why are the other options wrong?
B) Database File
A database file is not a feed format. You would export the product records from the database into a tab-delimited text file, an XML file or a Google Sheet before uploading.
C) Excel File Format
A native Excel workbook is not accepted as an upload. You can build the feed in Excel, but it has to be saved out as tab-delimited text first, or moved into Google Sheets, which Merchant Center reads directly.
D) Google Document File
A word-processing document has no row and column structure for Merchant Center to parse. The Google product that is accepted here is Google Sheets, not Google Docs.
Frequently asked questions about this topic
How do I upload a feed file in Merchant Center?
Go to Products and then Feeds, add a primary feed, and choose how the file will reach Google: a scheduled fetch from a URL, a direct upload, an SFTP drop or a linked Google Sheet. Give the feed a target country and language, because the same product can need a separate feed per market.
I built my feed in Excel. What do I do?
Use Save As and pick the tab-delimited text option rather than uploading the workbook itself. Check the encoding is UTF-8 so that accented characters and currency symbols survive, since mis-encoded titles are a common cause of item-level disapprovals.
Official documentation: https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/160567
Topics in this question
About the Shopping Ads Certification
The Shopping Ads Certification checks that you can run retail campaigns end to end: product data in Merchant Center, linking it to Google Ads, and choosing between Standard Shopping and Performance Max to drive sales and value.
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