Fixing Price Display Issues in Google Listings & Ads for WooCommerce

One of the most common challenges when using the Google Listings & Ads plugin is ensuring that product prices sync correctly to the Google Merchant Center. Incorrect price displays, such as showing the wrong value or an unexpected "+tax" label, can lead to customer confusion and policy violations. This guide covers the typical causes and solutions for these price sync problems.

Why Do Price Display Issues Occur?

Price discrepancies usually stem from a mismatch between your WooCommerce store settings and the data format or policies required by Google Merchant Center. The most frequent causes are:

• Currency Format Conflicts: Google Merchant Center may interpret your store's thousands and decimal separators differently, leading to drastically incorrect prices (e.g., a price of $30,350 appearing as 28 CLP).
• Tax Configuration: If your tax settings in WooCommerce don't align with Google's requirements for your target countries, prices may show with an incorrect "+tax" suffix or include/exclude VAT incorrectly.
• Google Merchant Center Policies: Google has strict rules, such as not allowing products with a price of zero, which can cause products to be rejected or display errors.

Common Solutions for Price Sync Problems

1. Correcting Currency and Separator Formats

If your prices are showing as wildly incorrect values in the feed, the issue is often related to number formatting.

• Check Your WooCommerce Settings: Navigate to WooCommerce > Settings > General. Ensure that the Thousand separator and Decimal separator are set correctly for your locale. In some cases, using a period (.) for the decimal separator and a comma (,) for the thousands separator is more reliably interpreted by Google's systems.
• Verify Google Merchant Center Currency: Log in to your Google Merchant Center account and confirm that the default currency setting matches the currency used in your WooCommerce store.

2. Configuring Tax Settings Correctly

To resolve issues with "+tax" being displayed or incorrect tax-inclusive/exclusive prices:

• For Stores Selling Outside the US/Canada: Google typically requires that prices be displayed including tax. In your WooCommerce settings (WooCommerce > Settings > Tax), set Prices entered with tax to Yes, I will enter prices inclusive of tax. This ensures the price synced to Google is the final price the customer will pay.
• For US-Based Sellers: You must configure your tax rates in the Google Listings & Ads setup wizard. Accurately select whether your store uses destination-based tax rates or not, as this information is displayed to customers on Google.

3. Handling Products with a Zero Price

Google Merchant Center does not allow products to be listed with a price of zero. If you wish to promote free products, a common workaround is required.

• Assign a Nominal Price: Set a minimal placeholder price for the product in WooCommerce, such as $0.01 or €0.10. This allows the product to pass Google's validation and appear in listings, though you should clearly communicate the actual price is free in the product title or description.

4. Force a Product Re-Sync

After making any configuration changes, it's crucial to manually re-sync your products with Google Merchant Center to ensure the new data is transmitted.

• Navigate to Google Listings & Ads > Settings.
• Find the Product Sync section and click the button to Sync All Products with Google Merchant Center.
• Allow some time for the sync to complete and for Google to reprocess the data.

Need More Specific Help?

If these steps don't resolve your issue, the problem might be more specific to your store's configuration. When seeking help from the community, be prepared to share:

• Screenshots of your WooCommerce currency and tax settings.
• A link to a sample product on your site and how it appears in the Google Merchant Center feed.
• Your store's base country and the target countries you are shipping to.

By systematically checking these settings, most price display issues can be successfully resolved, ensuring your products are listed accurately on Google.