Google Merchant Center puts product reviews on the API menu

Google has up to date its Service provider Heart documentation to listing the Service provider API as an official strategy to submit product opinions.

Search Engine Roundtable noticed the change. The assistance web page beforehand mentioned APIs weren’t supported for product assessment knowledge sources. It now consists of “Add product opinions utilizing API” alongside file uploads, scheduled fetches, SFTP and Google Cloud Storage.

For bigger retailers, meaning assessment knowledge may be managed programmatically as a substitute of repeatedly shuffling XML information round.

Google’s Service provider API can create or replace product opinions, retrieve particular person opinions, listing opinions and delete them.

There may be nonetheless some paperwork.

Retailers must be enrolled in Google’s Product Scores program, and Google says candidates ought to have no less than 50 product opinions. A Google agent should approve the account earlier than Product Scores is enabled. API customers additionally must submit an allowlist request by way of Google’s Buying API assist kind.

Not fairly a brand-new API

One wrinkle: the underlying Critiques sub-API itself will not be new.

Google’s API launch notes present the Critiques sub-API entered beta again in October 2024, with further review-related options arriving since then. What seems to be new right here is Google formally including the API workflow to its Service provider Heart product-review documentation.

Our take

For retailers managing tons of or 1000’s of opinions, that is much less glamorous than one other AI procuring announcement, however in all probability extra helpful.

Critiques can now sit inside the identical automated commerce stack as merchandise, stock and promotions somewhat than dwelling in their very own XML-shaped nook of Service provider Heart.

The catch is basic Google: the API is there, however first you want to be admitted to the membership.

Supply: Search Engine Roundtable noticed the documentation change.