Merchant listings missing field: what to fix

A missing name, image, or offer price is critical: those products can't show as merchant listings until you fix it. A missing description, shippingDetails, hasMerchantReturnPolicy, or GTIN is non-critical and can wait.

Search Console's email sorts these into Top critical issues and Top non-critical issues. Inside the report, critical ones sit in the table called Why items are invalid. Non-critical ones sit under Improve item appearance.

Message	Blocks the listing?	What to do
Missing field "name"	Yes	Give the product a name in the markup. An empty string counts as missing.
Missing field "image"	Yes	Add `image` with a full URL to a real product photo that Google can crawl.
Missing field "price" (in "offers")	Yes	Put the current price in `offers.price`, with `priceCurrency`. It must be above zero.
Missing field "description"	No	Add a short `description`. Google calls it strongly recommended.
Missing field "shippingDetails" (in "offers")	No	Optional. Lets Google show your shipping cost and delivery time.
Missing field "hasMerchantReturnPolicy" (in "offers")	No	Optional. Lets Google show your return window and cost.
No global identifier provided (e.g., gtin, brand)	No	Add the barcode number as `gtin` if the product has one.

Fix the critical ones first

Google needs three things for a merchant listing: name, image, and an offers block with a price and a currency. A product missing any of them won't show as a merchant listing. The page itself stays on Google as a plain result.

Before: no image, and the offer has no price

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Product",
  "name": "Canvas Weekender Bag",
  "offers": {
    "@type": "Offer",
    "priceCurrency": "USD",
    "availability": "https://schema.org/InStock"
  }
}
</script>

After: the three required parts are there

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Product",
  "name": "Canvas Weekender Bag",
  "image": "https://example.com/photos/weekender-bag.jpg",
  "description": "Waxed canvas travel bag with leather handles.",
  "offers": {
    "@type": "Offer",
    "price": 89,
    "priceCurrency": "USD",
    "availability": "https://schema.org/InStock"
  }
}
</script>

Why the price goes missing

The price is 0. Merchant listings need a price above zero. A free item can still get a product snippet, which accepts 0.
The price sits in a field Google doesn't read for the offer. BigCommerce's Cornerstone theme, for a product with a price range, writes minPrice and maxPrice in the offer instead of price. Check those products first.
The price is written as text with a currency sign, such as "$89.00". Use a plain number and put the currency in priceCurrency.
An app or widget prints a second Product block without an offer. Search the page source for application/ld+json and count the Product blocks.

Why the image goes missing

Check that image holds a full address, starting with https://, and that robots.txt doesn't block the folder your images live in. If only some products show the issue, look for products with no photo uploaded.

Check one product, then the whole report

Paste a product address from the report into the Rich Results Test. Open Merchant listings in the results. It lists each critical and non-critical issue for that page.
Fix the markup where it's made: your theme's product template, your platform's SEO settings, or the app that writes it. One template fix covers every product that uses it.
Test the same product again. The critical issues should be gone.
In Search Console, open Shopping > Merchant listings, click the issue row, and click Validate fix.

The report counts items, not pages, and shows a sample, not every product. Only indexed pages appear in it at all.

CrawlCoach doesn't check Merchant listings fields. On paid plans it flags JSON-LD that won't parse at all, which hides every field this report reads.

Products only show with prices if Google indexed the page. See which of yours it skipped, free.

Get my free report

Questions

What's the difference between Merchant listings and Product snippets?

Merchant listings cover pages where shoppers can buy the product. Product snippets cover other product pages, such as reviews. Google's docs say the Merchant listings report also checks product snippet markup that has an offer, so a store mostly needs the Merchant listings report.

Why does the Merchant listings report show fewer products than my store has?

The report shows a sample of items, not a full list, and it only includes pages Google indexed. Use the Rich Results Test to check any product the report doesn't list.

Do non-critical Merchant listings issues hurt my store?

Not today. Google's email says they don't stop the page or feature from showing on Google. It also says some might become critical later, so fix them when you can.

Sources

Checked on October 8, 2026. Vendors change their tools and docs, so check the source if something looks different.

Merchant listings "Missing field" issues: which ones matter