Merchant Center checklist for a Bulgarian online store

Preparing a Bulgarian online store for Google Shopping comes down to 12 checks in four groups: account and website, shipping and prices, product data, tracking. None of them depends on the date when Google launches Bulgaria, and most take hours, not weeks. The three most common reasons for product disapproval are a missing shipping setting, a mismatch between the price in the feed and on the website, and a missing unique identifier. A store that has cleared them in advance starts collecting data from day one instead of waiting for approval.

Prepared by Hristiyan Panov, founder of Hpanov-Digital, a performance marketing consultancy with over 5 years of experience and over €2 000 000 in managed ad spend for more than 90 companies on Google and Meta. Last checked: 14.10.2026. As of this date, Google Shopping is not officially available in Bulgaria; details in the Google Shopping status for Bulgaria.

What needs to be ready in the account and on the website?

• 1. A Merchant Center account with complete business information. Name, address, phone number and contact email, the same as on the website.
• 2. A verified and claimed website. The store's domain is verified in Merchant Center. Without this, products are not shown.
• 3. Public policy pages. Shipping, returns and complaints, terms and conditions, contact. Google checks whether they exist and whether they match the account settings.

How should shipping and prices be set up?

• 4. A shipping setting for Bulgaria. Delivery time and shipping cost in Merchant Center. In a technical check on 1 October 2026, missing shipping was the only reason products were not approved for Bulgaria.
• 5. Prices in euro only. Bulgaria joined the euro area on 1 January 2026, and mandatory dual pricing in leva and euro ended on 8 August 2026. The price in the feed, on the product page and in the cart must match, with VAT included.
• 6. Sale prices in a separate field. The reduced price is submitted in the sale price field, not as the main price. A mismatch during promotions is the most common reason for disapproval after a price change.

Which product data determines whether a product is shown?

• 7. The required fields. ID, title, description, product link, image link, price, availability and condition for every item.
• 8. A unique identifier. GTIN (barcode) for products with a manufacturer's barcode; brand and MPN where there is no barcode. Own-brand products without a barcode are marked as such, not left empty.
• 9. A title that matches the search. Up to 150 characters; the first words matter most. "Men's winter boots, genuine leather, black, 43" appears for real searches, while "Item 4412" appears almost nowhere.
• 10. Images without overlaid text and at least 500×500 pixels. No promotional text, watermarks or borders on the image. Google is introducing a minimum requirement of 500×500 pixels for all product images, applying from 31 January 2027. A store that replaces its images now does not lose products from display after that date.

What should be tracked before any budget goes live?

• 11. Purchase with order value. The conversion passes the amount and currency, not just the fact of the order. Without value, automated bidding optimises for the number of orders, not for revenue and profit.
• 12. Consent Mode v2 and structured data. Consent mode is a Google requirement for advertisers in the EEA. The structured data on the product page (price, currency, availability) must match the feed.

Where does the product feed come from, by platform?

A feed prepared according to these rules also works for catalogue ads on Meta. There is no need to wait for Google to use it.

How is readiness checked in Merchant Center?

In the product diagnostics, by country. Errors are read at three levels: account, data source and individual item. Work starts with account-level errors, because one of them stops the entire catalogue. More on reading the diagnostics: Disapproved items in Merchant Center.

For Bulgaria, as of 14 October 2026, there is one additional check: if the diagnostics show an unsupported country error, the market is not open yet. If the errors concern shipping, price or identifiers, the problem is in your data and can be fixed now.

FAQ — Frequently asked questions about preparing for Google Shopping

Can a Merchant Center account be created before Shopping launches in Bulgaria?

Yes. The account, website verification, shipping and the feed are set up regardless of the market's status.

Do prices have to include VAT?

Yes. In EU countries, the price in the product data includes VAT and matches the final price on the product page.

What should be done with products without a barcode?

Submit the brand and MPN, and for own-brand products without a barcode, mark that no identifier exists. An empty field for a product that has a barcode leads to disapproval or limited visibility.

What language should the feed be in?

Google's general rule is that the feed language must match the language of the product page and the cart. As of 14 October 2026, Bulgarian is not among the supported languages, and no requirements for Bulgaria have been published.

How often should the feed be updated?

At least once a day, and more often when stock levels and prices change frequently. An ad for an out-of-stock product is a paid visit with no possibility of an order.

Conclusion

Readiness for Google Shopping does not depend on the launch date. The twelve checks are the same for Bulgaria, Greece and Romania, and a feed cleaned up against them works immediately on Meta as well. When Google opens Bulgaria, the advantage will go to stores whose products are already approved.

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Related articles: Google Shopping in Bulgaria: status · CSS for Google Shopping · Catalogue ads on Meta

Sources

• Google: product data specification
• Google Merchant Center: Supported countries and currencies
• ECB: Bulgaria in the euro area