Product IDs

Here are the different kinds of product IDs in the Content API for Shopping:

Offer ID
An offerId is a string assigned to a product by a merchant. This ID represents an individual product.
offerId is unique to the set of offers in the Merchant Center database, and is usually a numeric sequential number.
offerId can be an internal SKU number that a merchant assigns to the product.
REST ID
A REST ID is the unique identifier for a product assigned by Google.
REST ID is the productId for REST API calls.

REST IDs are aggregates with the format online:en:label:1111111111. The REST ID consists of the following 4 parts, separated by colons:

  1. Channel ("online" or "local")
  2. Content Language (using the 2-letter designation, for example en or fr)
  3. Feed label (might be the two-letter code for the feed's target country, for example US or FR)
  4. Offer ID

You put this together as channel:contentLanguage:feedLabel:offerId, for example, online:en:US:1111111111.

External Seller ID (Marketplaces)

Marketplaces must assign an external_seller_id to offers uploaded to a multi-seller account. This field represents an individual seller.

external_seller_id values are case-sensitive, and must meet the following criteria:

  • 1-50 characters in length
  • Only alphanumeric ASCII characters, and underscore (_), hyphen (-), period (.), and tilde (~)

This isn't the same as the internal seller_id field.

The following table summarizes some of the IDs that can be associated with a product:

Attribute Description Example Notes
offerId An ID assigned to a product by a merchant. 1111111111 String data type, unique identifier for a product's offer.
REST ID An ID assigned to a product by Google. In the format channel:contentLanguage:feedLabel:offerId. online:en:label:1111111111 Full ID including offerId.
productId Used to refer to the REST ID in API calls. online:en:label:1111111111 This is the REST ID of a product.
id Same value as REST ID and productId. online:en:label:1111111111 Used inside JSON body of a product to refer to its productId.
external_seller_id A seller ID chosen by the Marketplace. example-Seller1 Required for multi-seller accounts. Must be 1-50 characters. Case-sensitive. Digits, and special characters _, -, ., and ~ are accepted.