The latest articles on DEV Community by Merchant Checkpoint (@merchantcheckpoint). https://dev.to/merchantcheckpoint https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=90,height=90,fit=cover,gravity=auto,format=auto/https:%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fuser%2Fprofile_image%2F4210892%2Fa2f9ab82-d77c-4285-bd9a-edd5ecc88b06.png https://dev.to/merchantcheckpoint en Merchant Checkpoint Tue, 27 Oct 2026 12:35:55 +0000 https://dev.to/merchantcheckpoint/a-pre-check-list-before-you-submit-a-shopify-store-to-google-merchant-center-1lf6 https://dev.to/merchantcheckpoint/a-pre-check-list-before-you-submit-a-shopify-store-to-google-merchant-center-1lf6 <p>Google Merchant Center reviews more than your product feed. It also looks at the store behind it. Many Shopify stores get flagged for things that have nothing to do with the products themselves, such as a missing policy page or a checkout that doesn't match the listing. Before you submit, it is worth walking through the public pages the way a reviewer would.</p> <h2> 1. Policy pages exist and are easy to find </h2> <ul> <li>A refund or return policy that says how long customers have, who pays return shipping and how refunds are issued.</li> <li>A shipping policy with delivery times, costs and the countries you ship to.</li> <li>A privacy policy and terms of service.</li> <li>Links to all of them in the footer, so they can be reached from every page.</li> </ul> <p>Shopify can generate templates for these, but read them and adapt them to how you actually work.</p> <h2> 2. Contact details are visible </h2> <p>Show at least one real way to reach you: an email address, a contact form, or a phone number if you have one. A contact page that only says "message us on social media" is a common weak spot.</p> <h2> 3. Prices and checkout match the product pages </h2> <ul> <li>The price, currency and availability in the feed match what the product page shows.</li> <li>Shipping costs at checkout match what the shipping policy says.</li> <li>No surprise fees appear at the last step.</li> </ul> <h2> 4. The store looks finished </h2> <ul> <li>No placeholder text, empty collections or "lorem ipsum" left from the theme.</li> <li>Working links, no password page and no "coming soon" sections on the pages you submit.</li> </ul> <h2> 5. Claims are careful </h2> <p>Avoid medical, financial or "guaranteed results" claims on product pages unless you can back them up.</p> <h2> A tool that helps with the first pass </h2> <p>We make <a href="https://merchantcheckpoint.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer">Merchant Checkpoint</a>, an independent tool that scans a Shopify store's public pages for items like the ones above and marks anything it cannot confirm as worth checking by hand. It is not affiliated with Google or Shopify and it cannot tell you whether a store will be approved. <a href="https://merchantcheckpoint.com/#checks" rel="noopener noreferrer">See what it checks</a>.</p> <p>Whatever you use, a manual walk through these five points before submitting saves a lot of back and forth later.</p> shopify ecommerce webdev