How to prepare a new store for Merchant Center review

Prepare a new store for Merchant Center review by finishing it first: real policies, a working contact route and checkout, and no leftover template text. Google publishes an onboarding checklist for exactly this and says trust can take time to build. Work the list below, scan the store, then submit.

Critical5 min read

By Edvinas Ivanauskas How the guides are reviewed

Why this matters

Google's checklist is called “Prepare your business and website for Merchant Center onboarding and reviews”, and it opens: “Use this checklist to prepare your website for Merchant Center onboarding.” It covers four areas: business transparency and trust, operations and logistics, website quality and uniqueness, and product quality and sourcing. Some of its lines read like a list of the things new stores forget: “Maintain a valid SSL certificate (HTTPS) on every page without exception.” “Replace stock photos with high-quality, authentic images of your actual products.” “Remove fake countdown timers, artificial stock warnings, and intrusive pop-up overlays.” It also asks you to strip placeholder text out of your shipping, return and privacy policies and write them for how you actually operate.

Underneath the checklist sit the basic requirements for the store itself. Google's “Online store URL domain requirements” page asks you to “Offer products for a displayed and fixed price”, to “Have at least one conventional method of payment”, to “Make sure customers can buy directly from your website” and to “Disclose purchase conditions for your business”, such as return and refund policies. A store that misses one of those isn't ready, however good it looks.

New stores should also know what Google says about time. Its “Building trust with your customers” page is frank: “Sometimes it can take time before a sufficient level of trust is established, and before we consider it's safe to display your offers to customers.” That is neither a grace period nor a penalty. It is the reason a finished store matters from day one, and the reason to fill in everything Google offers, from Business info to a Google Business Profile. A brand-new domain is its own worry; see new domains and Merchant Center. If you are already suspended, the order of work is in the suspension checklist.

Business info, shipping and return settings and verification happen inside Merchant Center, which StoreVerifier does not open, so those are manual. The free scan does the store side in one pass: it reports a missing returns, shipping or privacy policy and a store with no contact page, and flags placeholder text and a missing About page, each with the page it found. Every check is listed on the misrepresentation checker.

Typical evidence

Start with what a shopper can verify

StoreVerifier can inspect the public storefront, not account age, internal history or a private review. Before submitting, make the identity, policy and product details consistent across the pages a shopper can reach.

New storefront

What the storefront can show

No public history to compare yet

Established storefront

What the storefront can show

More public pages and records to compare

Finish all of this before you connect — not after

Every policy page finished — returns, shipping, privacy, contact, terms

Name & address identical across site, GMC and Business Profile

Real, reachable contact — domain email, phone or form

A full five-layer scan run before you submit

The public signals this check looks for:

The policy pages are the platform's templates, with “[Store name]” and “within X days” sti…
The policy pages are the platform's templates, with “[Store name]” and “within X days” still in them.
The About page is the theme's sample text, or there isn't one
The About page is the theme's sample text, or there isn't one.
The only contact route is a form nobody has ever tested
The only contact route is a form nobody has ever tested.
Product photos are the supplier's images, the same ones on dozens of other stores
Product photos are the supplier's images, the same ones on dozens of other stores.
A countdown timer or an “only 3 left” badge came with the theme and runs on every product
A countdown timer or an “only 3 left” badge came with the theme and runs on every product.
Checkout sends buyers to another website, or offers a single niche payment method
Checkout sends buyers to another website, or offers a single niche payment method.
Shipping and return settings in Merchant Center say something different from the policy pa…
Shipping and return settings in Merchant Center say something different from the policy pages, because they were filled in at speed.

What it looks like once it is right

The same store three days later: policies with its own 30-day return window and Leeds return address, support@ on its own domain, its own photos on the ten bestsellers, no timers, and an About page naming the two people who run it.

Common mistakes

Common mistake

A two-week-old store with template policies (“returns accepted within [X] days”), a Gmail contact address, supplier photos, a countdown timer on every product and an About page that says “Tell your brand story here.”

Fix checklist

Write the returns, shipping, privacy and terms pages for your actual business: your return window, who pays return postage, where you ship from, and your handling and delivery times. Delete every template placeholder.
Put your business name, a street address, a phone number that rings and an email on your own domain in the footer and on the contact page.
Write an About page that says who runs the store, from where, and what you sell, in your own words.
Replace supplier stock photos with your own where you can, starting with the bestsellers, and rewrite copied product descriptions.
Remove urgency widgets that aren't tied to real stock or a real promotion end date: countdown timers, “X people viewing”, “only 2 left”.
Place a test order with each payment method: price, shipping and tax visible before payment, and the checkout staying on your site or a recognised payment page.
Click every link in the header and footer on a phone, signed out, and fix anything that returns a 404 or bounces to the home page.
In Merchant Center, fill in Business info, then set your shipping and return policy settings to the same numbers your policy pages give.
Run the free scan, fix what it reports, and keep a dated list of what you changed. Then submit.

Questions merchants ask

Is there a waiting period for new stores on Google Merchant Center?

Google doesn't publish one. Its Building trust page says it can take time for a sufficient level of trust to be established and for your offers to be considered safe to show, and it gives no number. Make the store complete from day one, and fill in what Google offers, such as Business info and a Google Business Profile.

What does Google require before I connect a new store?

Its online store URL domain requirements ask for a displayed and fixed price, at least one conventional payment method in a secure checkout, buying directly on your website, and disclosed purchase conditions such as return and refund policies. Its onboarding checklist adds business transparency, clear shipping and returns, and a site free of placeholders and broken links.

Should I wait until my store has sales before applying?

The Google pages this guide draws on describe a finished, transparent store, not an order count. Get the basics right first; there is no upside in submitting a half-built store to see what happens. See the suspension checklist if you already have a notice.

Remediation

Risk signal

A new store gets one first impression, and it is far easier to make a good one than to argue about a bad one afterwards. Finish the store, run the free scan, fix what comes back, and only then press submit.

PriorityTreat this and any other highest-severity findings as first-priority work, then document each fix.

EvidenceRecord the current state before each change, apply the fix, then capture the corrected state so every change is evidenced.

Similar cases

Sources

Community guidance

Written by Product Experts, the users Google recognises for their answers on its Merchant Center Community forum. Often stricter than Google’s help pages, and not Google policy.

How to fix your Merchant Center suspension (Misrepresentation), 2026Merchant Center Community · Product Expert guide — support.google.com

Last reviewed 23 Sep 2026.

That is one issue. The library documents 134.

The free scan lists what it finds on your store. The paid report adds the affected pages, captured evidence and step-by-step fixes. Start free, with no account needed.