Missing or inconsistent shipping information in Merchant Center: how to fix it

Updated 25 Sept 2026 · by Sergey Sachenok, Founder of Polyntor

Merchant Center showsMissing shipping costs

In short

Products with no shipping cost do not show to shoppers. Google calls this Missing shipping costs; older reports and the troubleshooter call it Missing value [shipping].
You give Google shipping either in the account shipping settings or with the [shipping] attribute in your feed. Start with the settings and use the attribute only for exceptions.
The cost you give Google must match your checkout or be slightly higher. A lower cost than checkout is its own issue and can lead to a warning or suspension.
Your shipping policy page, your Merchant Center settings and your checkout must state the same zones, costs, handling times and delivery times.

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What the issue means

When Google has no shipping cost for a product in a country you sell to, that product stays out of Shopping ads and free listings there. In current Merchant Center the product-level issue reads Missing shipping costs; Google's shipping troubleshooter still uses the older name Missing value [shipping], which you may also see in downloaded reports. It can appear as a warning or as a disapproval.

Shipping cost is required in the countries Google lists on the shipping attribute page. That list includes the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Japan, India, Brazil and many European countries. Selling into any of them without a shipping cost is the most direct way to get this issue.

There is a second, more serious family of problems: shipping information that exists but does not agree. If the cost in Merchant Center is lower than what a buyer pays at checkout, Google raises Inaccurate shipping costs, which can end in an account warning or suspension. And the misrepresentation policy treats undisclosed shipping costs, and delivery times that hide a longer handling delay, as misleading the buyer. More on that in Misrepresentation.

Where Google gets your shipping information

There are two places, and they stack:

Account shipping settings. In Merchant Center under Products & store → Shipping and returns, you add shipping policies: which countries you deliver to, the cost (flat, carrier-calculated, or based on price, weight or quantity), handling time, transit time, cut-off time and business days. These apply to all products unless something overrides them.
The [shipping] attribute in your feed. Set per product and per country. If you include the price sub-attribute, it replaces the account settings for that product in that location, including their delivery times. Without a price, the account settings still apply.

Google's own advice is to set up account settings first and only then override them for the products that need it. A feed full of per-product shipping values is harder to keep in line with your website than one policy in the settings.

Two terms matter here. Handling time is the number of business days from the order to the moment you hand the parcel to the carrier. Transit time is the number of business days from the carrier to the buyer. Google can only estimate delivery speed when it has a maximum for both.

How to fix it, step by step

Write down how you really shipBefore touching any setting, list every country you deliver to, the carrier, the cost (and when it is free), how many business days you need to dispatch an order, and how long the carrier takes. This list is the single source for the next three steps.
Publish a shipping policy pagePut that list on a page of its own: zones you ship to and zones you do not, costs per zone, handling time and transit time stated separately, carriers, customs or import charges for international orders, how tracking works, and where products ship from. If a supplier or warehouse ships for you, say so. Link the page from the footer and from product pages.
Add a shipping policy in Merchant CenterGo to Products & store → Shipping and returns and add a shipping policy for online products with the same countries, costs and times. Enter costs in the currency of the country you sell to. If you charge by weight, every product in the feed needs [shipping_weight].
Use the shipping attribute only for exceptionsBulky items, products with free delivery, a country with different rates: override those in the feed with the [shipping] attribute, or group them with [shipping_label] and give the group its own rate in the settings. Everything else should come from the account policy.
Compare with your checkoutPut a few real products in the basket for each country and look at the shipping line. The cost Google has should match it. If you cannot match it exactly, set Merchant Center slightly higher, never lower. Lower is what triggers the inaccurate shipping costs issue.
Show times where buyers decideState handling and delivery times on product pages and at checkout, not only on the policy page, and keep them the same as in Merchant Center. Do not put a short delivery time in large text and the real processing delay in small print.
Wait, then check the Needs attention tabGoogle says changes can take 24 to 72 hours to show up. After that, open Products & store → Products → Needs attention and filter by the shipping issue to confirm the count is going down.

Keeping site, settings and feed consistent

Most repeat problems come from changing one place and forgetting the others: a carrier raises its rates and only checkout changes, a free-shipping promotion ends but the settings still say free, a new country is added to the store but not to Merchant Center. Make it a rule that any shipping change touches all three: the policy page, the Merchant Center shipping policy and, if you use it, the [shipping] attribute.

Returns belong in the same review. Every country you ship to should have return terms, and return shipping costs must be disclosed too. More in Missing return policy. If a price problem shows up alongside the shipping one, read Mismatched price, and if the account is already suspended, fix everything first and then follow Requesting a review after a suspension.

What Polyntor checks for this

Whether your store has a shipping page at all
On that page: countries you ship to and do not ship to, the carrier, the cost for each location, and customs or import charges
Handling time stated separately from transit time, in business days
How tracking works and what happens with missing or incomplete orders
A link to the shipping policy in the footer and from product pages
Shipping cost stated on the product page near the add to cart button
The shipping policy URL you declared: that it loads and sits on your own domain
The shipping policies you declared: countries named, a flat rate with an amount, labels for policies scoped to selected products
That shipping, return and feed currencies agree, and that every country you ship to has return terms
With Merchant Center connected: whether the account has at least one active shipping service

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Questions

Do I need both account shipping settings and the shipping attribute?

No. One of them is enough for a product to have a shipping cost. Google recommends account settings as the base and the attribute only for products that differ. If you send the attribute with a price, it wins over the settings for that product and country.

I already set up shipping, but products still show the issue. Why?

Common reasons: the policy does not cover the country the product targets, it is weight-based but products lack [shipping_weight], a [shipping_label] in the feed does not match any rate, or the change has not been processed yet. Google says updates can take 24 to 72 hours.

My shipping cost depends on the order. What do I enter?

Use the rate type that fits: price-based, weight-based, quantity-based or carrier-calculated rates are all available in the settings. If you still cannot match checkout exactly, Google allows a slightly higher figure. A lower one is treated as inaccurate.

Can I offer free shipping only above a certain order value?

Yes, as long as the settings describe it and the site and checkout say the same thing. Put the threshold on the policy page and near the price, so buyers under the threshold are not surprised at checkout.

Should delivery times be in business days or calendar days?

Merchant Center counts handling and transit time in business days, and you choose which days count as business days in the settings. Use the same unit on your site so the numbers a buyer sees match the ones Google shows.