How to Add a Sale Price in Google Merchant Center

Running a sale? Google Shopping can show your discounted price — and in some cases a strikethrough of the regular price — so shoppers see the deal. To do this correctly, your feed needs the right attributes, and your website must show the same sale price.

The attributes you need

• price — the regular price, for example 1999.00 INR. Keep this as the normal price.
• sale_price — the discounted price, for example 1499.00 INR.
• sale_price_effective_date (optional but recommended) — the start and end of the sale, so the sale price applies only during that period.

Without effective dates, the sale price applies as long as it is in the feed — so remember to remove it when the sale ends.

Rules that prevent problems

• The landing page must show the sale price during the sale. A mismatch between feed and page causes disapprovals.
• Product schema on the page should show the price customers actually pay — see product schema markup for ecommerce.
• Use real discounts. Do not invent a higher "regular price" to make a discount look bigger. Google may show strikethrough prices based on the product's actual price history, so inflated reference prices do not help and can mislead customers.
• Update stock — sales often sell out; keep availability current.

Step by step

1. Set the sale price on your website (with start and end dates if your platform supports them).
2. Add sale_price and sale_price_effective_date to the products in your feed.
3. Validate the feed with the Merchant Center feed validator.
4. Fetch the feed in Merchant Center before the sale starts.
5. After the sale, make sure the website and feed return to the regular price together.

Promotions are different

Coupon codes and "buy one, get one" offers are not sale prices. Merchant Center has a separate promotions feature for those, where available in your country. Keep sale_price for direct price reductions.

A worked example

A clothing store ran a festive sale with 25% off. Its website changed prices at midnight, but the feed updated only once a day at 6 am, so for six hours the feed showed regular prices while the site showed sale prices — and several products were disapproved for price mismatches. The fix was adding sale_price_effective_date for the exact sale period in advance, so both changed at the same time.

For more on feed errors, read how to fix Merchant Center errors.

Sale checklist for festive seasons

• Set sale prices and dates on your website and in the feed at least a day ahead.
• Fetch the feed manually in Merchant Center after the update.
• Spot-check a few products: feed price, page price and schema price should all match.
• Watch Diagnostics for price mismatch warnings during the first hours.
• Check stock levels for the products you are promoting most.
• After the sale, confirm regular prices are back everywhere.

Festive periods are when disapprovals hurt most, so a short checklist saves real revenue.

Related guides

• Merchant Center Misrepresentation Suspension: How to Fix and Appeal
• Product Variants in Google Merchant Center: Sizes and Colours Done Right
• How to Validate a Product Feed Before Uploading to Merchant Center

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