Google Merchant Center Next: Changes, Limits, and More

Google has rolled out Merchant Center Next to everyone around the world. This update changes everything about how product information is created, understood, improved, and displayed on Google Shopping, Performance Max, and free listings. It goes way beyond just a new look.

Anyone selling online through ads or working with product feeds needs to pay attention. Google Merchant Center Next will change how visible your products are, how much control you have, and how much money you make. Some tasks got simpler. Other parts became more dangerous. Several tools from the traditional Merchant Center no longer exist.

We’ll explain what’s new, why you should care, what problems you might face, and what steps brands need to take.

What Is Google Merchant Center Next?

Google Merchant Center Next replaces the old interface and becomes the standard version everyone uses now. Google moved away from focusing on feeds first to focusing on websites first. Now Google pulls product information straight from your website on its own.

GMC Next doesn’t just depend on the feeds you upload. Instead, it tries to:

• Look through your website
• Find products without your help
• Create product details by itself
• Give you tips based on what Google thinks
  

Google built this to make things easier for sellers just starting out. But it creates new problems if you don’t watch what happens carefully.

When Was Google Merchant Center Next Introduced?

Google Merchant Center Next made its official debut during Google Marketing Live in May 2023 as a simplified, redesigned version of the original Merchant Center. 

Google began migrating all merchants soon after the announcement, and by September 2024 it had completed the rollout, displacing all users on the classic interface. 

With this migration, ecommerce brands were able to manage their product data and Shopping campaigns much more intuitively, automate and align their marketing efforts with modern feeds and AI.  

Why Was Google Merchant Center Next Introduced?

Google Merchant Center Next streamlines and modernizes the management of products and Shopping campaigns for merchants. Merchant Center has evolved over time and is now increasingly complex with technical barriers that make it difficult for growing ecommerce brands to manage product feeds and setup campaigns efficiently. 

Three core objectives shaped Merchant Center Next:

• Simplify product data management — minimize manual feed uploads by detecting and importing product data directly from retailer websites. 
• Improve ease of use — a more intuitive interface makes it easier for advertisers to review, diagnose, and respond to product listings. 
• Leverage AI capabilities — software like Product Studio can help brands create enhanced product visuals without requiring external graphic design software. 

Instead of worrying about platform mechanics, merchants can now focus on optimizing their strategy instead.

What’s Different in Google Merchant Center Next?

GMC Next changed both how things look and how they work. The main change is the source of Google’s product information.

1. Website-First Product Detection

The old Merchant Center needed feeds for most things. Merchant Center Next cares more about:

• Structured data you put on your website
• What’s written on your pages
• HTML code signals
• Products it finds automatically
  

Feeds still matter, but Google treats your website as the primary source now unless you force it to do otherwise.

2. Simplified Dashboard

The new layout focuses on:

• Whether your products show up or not
• How many clicks might you get
• Problems and tips
• Ideas for getting more sales
  

The advanced feed settings are harder to find or have disappeared entirely.

3. Reduced Manual Setup

New sellers can show up in Shopping results now without:

• Uploading any feed
• Building complicated rules
• Choosing categories by hand
  

This helps beginners. But it’s risky for big online stores that need precise control.

Automatic Product Data Extraction From Websites in Google Merchant Center Next

This is the most important change. Google now takes information automatically like:

• Product names
• How much things cost
• What’s in stock
• Pictures
• Product details
• Different versions of products
  

Google does this by reading:

• Schema markup code
• Text on your pages
• How pages are organized
• HTML pieces it finds while crawling

Importance of Automatic Product Data Extraction From Websites in GMC Next

When your website information is:

• Not consistent
• Organized poorly
• Missing important details
  

Google still makes listings. But those listings might be completely wrong.

Problems you’ll see often:

• Product names that don’t make sense
• Missing product versions
• Prices that are wrong
• Stock information that’s incorrect
• Keywords that don’t match what people search for
  

Big product catalogs can lose money quietly because of these errors.

When Automatic Extraction Works Well

Google’s automatic system works great when:

• Your schema markup is clean
• Product names follow good patterns
• All product pages use the same design
• You sell basic products without many choices
  

Small catalogs usually benefit from this.

When Automatic Extraction Causes Problems

The system fails hard when:

• Products come in many different versions
• Product names need specific keywords
• You sell bundles or product kits
• Special product details matter a lot
• You need to group products by profit margin
  

When this happens, feeds become critical again.

Click Potential Metric: New Metric Explained

GMC Next added a new measurement called Click Potential. Click Potential guesses how likely someone will click on a product. It looks at:

• How complete is the product information is
• How many people search for it
• How competitive the market is
• How does your price compare
• How good is your data quality is
  

You’ll see it rated as:

• Low
• Medium
• High

What Click Potential Does Not Reveal?

Click Potential:

• Doesn’t tell you if people will buy
• Doesn’t predict your return on ad spend
• Doesn’t score how profitable something is
  

It only estimates whether people might see and click your product. It says nothing about actual business results.

How to Use Click Potential Correctly

Use it to:

• Find products that need better optimization
• See which products are missing details
• Discover chances to improve names and pictures
  

Never use it to:

• Choose how much to spend
• Stop running campaigns
• Judge how well things are doing by itself

Limitations of Google Merchant Center Next

Google Merchant Center Next streamlines several workflows, but it isn’t fully mature enough to replace advanced ecommerce operations. A company with a large catalog, aggressive shopping campaigns, or a multichannel feed quickly runs into limitations. Early identification of these gaps helps prevent performance loss, feed instability, and scaling problems.

Limited Bulk Editing & Rule Control

With Merchant Center Next, manual setup is reduced, but power users lose granular control over settings.

If you have a small catalog, this may work fine for you. The system becomes restrictive when there are thousands of SKUs.

There are several limitations to consider:

• The UI does not offer advanced bulk attribute transformations
• Labels, titles, and descriptions have limited conditional logic
• Scale is heavily reliant on external feed tools

Thus, Merchant Center Next cannot be relied upon alone for serious feed optimization.

Simplified Diagnostics With Less Historical Depth

Merchant Center Next provides cleaner, but less detailed diagnostics.

Although you can see what’s broken right now, you can’t explain why it occurred, when it started, or how often it recurs.

Here’s what’s missing:

• Tracking of historical errors is limited
• Large catalogs have fewer filtering options
• There is less visibility into recurring feed instability

As a result, advanced advertisers have a harder time troubleshooting long-term issues.

Website Auto-Extraction Isn’t Always Accurate

A key feature of the tool is the automatic extraction of products from websites. However, it is not foolproof.

The problem arises when:

• The structured data is incomplete or inconsistent
• Variants of products are complex
• There is often a change in pricing, availability, or GTINs
• Stores with heavy JavaScript delays rendering of content

During extraction, products may be miscategorized, disapproved, or underserved.

Reduced Feed Rule Sophistication Compared to Classic

Using Merchant Center Classic, you could perform rule-based transformations directly on the platform. With Merchant Center Next, this is simplified, but flexibility is sacrificed.

The following limitations apply:

• Fewer advanced rules for feeds
• Having fewer fallbacks for missing attributes
• Multifield mapping is not required

For high-ROAS brands to maintain control, third-party feed tools are still needed.

Weak Multi-Channel Feed Support

The Merchant Center Next platform was developed primarily for Google surfaces.

There is no support for:

• Optimizing feeds for Meta, Microsoft, or marketplaces
• A centralized governance system for omnichannel feeds
• Standardization of cross-platform attributes

There are still multiple feed systems that brands must manage outside Merchant Center Next if they run Google + Bing + Meta.

Missing or Incomplete Legacy Features

Merchant Center lacks a number of familiar features or is still being developed.

Among them are:

• Advanced promotion configurations
• Deep product-level reporting views
• Local inventory and regional feed flexibility
• Fine-grained shipping rule overrides

The migration process for advanced advertisers creates workflow gaps.

Workarounds for Merchant Center Next Limitations

Smart advertisers found ways to deal with these issues.

Use Feeds as Overrides, Not Primary Inputs

Upload good feeds to:

• Control product names
• Control descriptions
• Control product versions
• Control how products are categorized
  

Google looks at websites first, but feeds still change many details when you set them up right.

Strengthen Website Structured Data

Your website matters more now than ever:

• Clean schema code
• Correct pricing
• Accurate stock information
• Clear markup for different versions
  

Bad website data means bad Shopping results.

Segment Using Campaign Structure

Since feed segmentation got harder, you need to organize differently:

• How you build campaigns
• How you structure asset groups
• Label-based logic when you can use it
  

How to Access Product Studio in Merchant Center Next

Product Studio is Google’s AI tool for creating images. It’s built into Merchant Center Next.

Where to Find It

• Open Merchant Center Next
• Click on Products
• Look for Product Studio (not available everywhere yet)
  

What Product Studio Does

• Creates AI-improved image backgrounds
• Makes lifestyle pictures
• Builds visual content for Shopping and PMax

What It Does NOT Do

• It doesn’t replace professional photos
• It doesn’t improve your feeds
• It doesn’t fix bad product data
  

Product Studio only helps with images. It doesn’t help with strategy. At Hustle Marketers, we generated 1500% ROAS for ArmorGarage by implementing the PMax campaign.

Missing Features From Classic Merchant Center

Some useful features either disappeared or work much worse now.

1. Advanced Feed Rules

Complex rule systems are very limited.

2. Diagnostic Granularity

The old Merchant Center showed much more detailed error information.

3. Manual Control Over Certain Attributes

Some details are now controlled automatically with almost no way to change them.

4. Clear Feed Priority Logic

Understanding which data source wins is much harder to figure out.

Power users lose control unless they learn new methods.

How Merchant Center Next Affects Performance Max

Merchant Center Next connects closely with Performance Max.

Main effects:

• Asset groups depend heavily on detected product information
• Bad product names make search themes weak
• Wrong product versions waste money
• Data that gets generated automatically feeds the automation
  

For Performance Max to succeed:

• Feed quality needs to be intentional
• Website data needs to be clean
• Campaign structure needs to make up for automation limits
  

What Ecommerce Brands Should Do Right Now

Google will still run your listings even if you ignore Merchant Center Next. But the results won’t help you.

Immediate Action Checklist

• Check your website structured data
• Look at products Google detected automatically
• Compare your feed data against website data
• Upload optimized feeds to take back control
• Track Click Potential changes
• Watch free listings and automatic enrollments
• Make feed logic match Performance Max structure
  

Merchant Center Next helps people who prepare, not people who do nothing.

5 Best Ways to Import Products to Google Merchant Center Next

Google Merchant Center Next provides multiple import options based on the needs of different businesses:

1. Automatic Website Import

The information about your products, including titles, prices, descriptions, and images, is automatically retrieved into Merchant Centre Next once your domain is added. As changes are made to your site, this method automatically updates the data. 

Best for: eCommerce sites that already have a structured HTML and sitemap.

2. Ecommerce Platform Integration

The built-in integrations of platforms like Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, etc., make it easy to sync products. Inventory and data are seamlessly synced into Merchant Center Next using Google Channel integrations. 

Best for: Shop owners who want to automatically synchronize their feeds without the hassle of manual uploads.

3. Feed File Upload

The next way is to upload from a feed file. Create a CSV, TXT, or XML file of your product catalog and upload it directly to Merchant Center Next. The advantage of feed files over automatic imports is that you can fine-tune each attribute you send to Google. 

Best for: Companies that utilize complex feed rules or attributes for their products.

4. Google Sheets Template

By using Google Sheets Template, you can create a product template and upload it. If you’re testing feed setups before automating your feeds or have a smaller catalog, then this method may be especially helpful. 

Best for: Catalogs with fewer items or spreadsheets.

5. Manual Entry

It is also possible for merchants to manually add or create products within the Merchant Center Next UI. Although it is not practical for large inventories, it is very helpful for testing or fixing individual listings. 

Best for: Spot corrections or very small catalogs.

Read our guide on Bing advertising to get a complete playbook on how to launch a Microsoft advertising campaign.

Final Thoughts

Google Merchant Center Next makes starting easier, but creates bigger risks for serious advertisers. Automation only helps when you have strong data, good organization, and clear goals.

Brands that depend completely on Google’s automatic system will lose control over visibility, messaging, and profits. Brands that learn how to use feeds, website data, and campaign structure together will get better results.

At Hustle Marketers, Merchant Center Next gets treated as a data system, not just an easy tool. Clean feeds, controlled automation, and smart structure still form the base of profitable Google Shopping and Performance Max campaigns.

Merchant Center Next isn’t something you can choose to ignore anymore. But you can choose not to lose control.