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Local inventory

Local inventory is the stock data per product and per physical store that a retailer sends to Merchant Center for local inventory ads and free local listings.

How it works

Merchant Center calls products sold in physical stores local products. A retailer with a showroom keeps its usual product data in the primary feed and adds local inventory on top.

Each row ties an existing product to a store code and says whether the product is in stock there. The store code is the physical store’s ID from the retailer’s Business Profile, which must be linked to Merchant Center. Price and pickup details are optional.

Local inventory ads and free local listings run on this data. In a Performance Max campaign with a product feed, local products are on by default once local inventory is present. Listing groups can separate them from online products.

In Google Ads, store visits are a separate conversion category. A Performance Max campaign uses all account-level conversion goals unless it has its own set. If store visits are among them, a campaign meant for online sales optimises for them too. Performance Max for stores with a showroom walks through this case.

Where you see it

In Google Ads, every product has a channel, Local or Online, so you can split performance between the two.

Example

Example store, not client data.

The tableware shop sells 3,000 products online, and 450 of them are also on display in its showroom. Its local inventory holds 1 store × 450 products = 450 rows. A second showroom with the same range makes it 2 × 450 = 900 rows, while the primary feed stays at 3,000 products.

Not to be confused with

  • Availability — the online stock status in the primary feed. Local inventory carries its own availability for each store.

Right and wrong readings

  • Wrong: “Local inventory is a second catalogue for the shop.” Right: it adds data to products that are already in the primary feed and cannot exist without them.

Sources