For merchants who are using the GoogleBase product feed functionality please important changes coming.
We have recently added a new field named Product Type in the Item Edit page under the Google heading. Google is expecting your internal category for the item here or you can also use the Google taxonomy of categories. We have automatically copied over existing values from the Product Category if a value exists there to get you started.
It’s important to note that nearly 75% of the items we host do not currently have correct values in the Product Type field according to Google. Please ensure that you have a correct value here or over the next few weeks Google may begin rejecting your product feed.
Please read Google’s help article for more information regarding what should go into the Product Category and Product Type fields.
http://support.google.com/merchants/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=160081
The new field is are now available via the Item Edit screen and import/export screens. The feed will be updated with this new information as of Monday March 19th.
Current Feed
Product_Type is sent as whatever is entered into the Product Category field
New Feed effective Monday March 19th
Product_Type is now its own field part of the item edit screen, we will send this value, or if empty we will send the department full name
Message from Google
Unlike the ‘product type’ attribute for which you can provide your own category values, we require that you provide the exact ‘google product category’ attribute value from our taxonomy in order to correctly process your item.
For example, if you’re categorizing running shoes, you would include the
following value directly from our taxonomy: “Apparel & Accessories > Shoes”.
The Google taxonomy can be found at http://support.google.com/merchants/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1705911
Please note also that Product Type is a required Google field. Product Category is required for some types of products but is a recommended optional field for other product types. Please see the Google documentation link above for more information.