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Google Launches Structured Data For Merchant Shipping Policies

Google Search supports sitewide shipping policy markup, letting you surface delivery costs and transit times in results without relying on Merchant Center.

  • You can publish sitewide shipping policies with structured data, and Google may show costs and delivery windows in Search.
  • Keep the policy on one page and define destinations, costs, and business-day transit times; Google may show the lowest eligible cost.
  • Shipping settings in Search Console or Merchant Center can override what you put in markup.
Google Launches Structured Data For Merchant Shipping Policies

Google Search now supports organization-level shipping policy markup, giving ecommerce websites a code-based way to surface delivery costs and transit times in Search and knowledge panels.

When you add ShippingService structured data, Google can display shipping information next to your products.

What’s New

Google added documentation describing ShippingService, which lets you define costs and delivery windows by product weight, dimensions, order value, or destination.

A standard policy lives under Organization via the hasShippingService property; product-specific overrides use OfferShippingDetails under Offer and support a smaller set of fields.

Implementation

Google recommends placing shipping policy markup on a single page.

Each ShippingService includes one or more ShippingConditions objects that specify when rates apply. If several apply to a product, Google uses the lowest cost and shows the associated speed. Fixed fees can be set with MonetaryAmount, and percentage-based fees with ShippingRateSettings. Transit times use ServicePeriod and can include businessDays and handling cutoff times.

Destination granularity supports country codes (ISO 3166-1), optional region codes (US, Australia, Japan only), and postal codes in the US, Canada, and Australia. Don’t provide both a region and postal code for the same condition.

If you combine markup with other Google shipping configurations, Google applies an order of precedence.

For example, when both markup and Search Console shipping settings are present, Google will use the Search Console settings. Google also notes that Content API for Shopping is the strongest source in this hierarchy.

Why This Matters

This gives you a markup-only path to publish shipping policies that Search can read, which may help keep details current even before products appear in feeds. If you already manage delivery settings in Merchant Center or Search Console, you can keep doing that; just be aware those sources can override page markup when both exist.

Looking Ahead

As with other rich results, your markup must follow Google’s structured data policies, Search Essentials, and the technical guidelines in the doc for it to be eligible for use in Search.


Featured Image: New Africa/Shutterstock

Category News Technical SEO
SEJ STAFF Matt G. Southern Senior News Writer at Search Engine Journal

Matt G. Southern, Senior News Writer, has been with Search Engine Journal since 2013. With a bachelor’s degree in communications, ...