About General settings

General Account Settings provide the tools needed to configure your account's core operational parameters. This includes setting the language and time zone, managing advanced account setup, integrating Comparison Shopping Services (CSS), controlling data sharing, and establishing Key event sources.

On this page

• Account setup
• Key event setup
• Comparison Shopping Services
• Personal preferences

Account setup

1. In your Merchant Center account select Settings in the left navigation menu.
2. Select General.
3. Select Account setup tab, you will find all below options.
   • Product protection: You can turn on product protection and set a limit to the number of products that can be deleted at once. For example, if you set it at 40%, it means that no more than 40% of your products can be deleted at one time. Learn how to Use the removal delay feature to protect your products.
   • Account language and time zone: You can select your account's language (used for most reports and emails) and reporting time zone on the Account setup tab. Adjusting the time zone affects how Google calculates and reports your performance metrics and applies only to newly calculated metrics.
     Note: The time zone is an account-level setting on the Account setup tab and cannot be changed on the Personal preferences tab. Individual users can only override their own Display language on the Personal preferences tab.
   • Comparison Shopping Services: You can use Comparison Shopping Service (CSS) to place Shopping ads on Google general search results pages in the European Economic Area and Switzerland.
   • Advanced account setup: As an admin user of a standalone Merchant Center account, you can request an advanced account setup. This is recommended for businesses that manage multiple sellers and domains at scale, such as marketplaces and multi-country retailers. Most customers don't need an advanced account to get the most out of Merchant Center. Learn how to Request an advanced account setup.
   • Data sharing: Data Sharing controls whether Google can access your Merchant Center data to provide business offers and recommendations across its various products. Learn how to Manage business personalization.
   • Marketing content usage: Google will collect relevant content from your marketing emails for display on Search, shopping.google.com and more. This includes sales and other promotions, social media links, new product announcements and more. Google will treat this content as "Content" subject to the Merchant Center terms. Learn How marketing content is used.

Key event setup

1. In your Merchant Center account, select the Settings in the left navigation menu.
2. Select General.
3. Select Key event setup tab.

Key event tracking, when enabled in Merchant Center, allows you to monitor your sales using specific key event metrics related to purchases. Key event tracking helps you identify which products and keywords are most successful for your business. Learn how to Set up key event tracking in Merchant Center.

Comparison Shopping Services

1. In your Merchant Center account, select the Settings in the left navigation menu.
2. Select General.
3. Select Comparison Shopping Services tab.

Comparison Shopping Services (CSSs) can place Shopping ads and free product listings on Google on behalf of merchants in the following countries: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. There are many CSSs, including Google Shopping. CSSs offer different areas of expertise, services, and charging models. Learn more about Working with Comparison Shopping Services.

You need to work with at least one CSS to place Shopping ads or free listings. You can work with several at the same time if you prefer. This article provides an overview of some of the different setups that we've seen CSSs offer, and information on how to work with a CSS. Learn more About advertising with Comparison Shopping Services.

Personal preferences

1. ​In your Merchant Center account, go to General under Settings in the left navigation menu.​
2. Select the Personal preferences tab. On the Personal preferences tab, you can manage settings that apply only to your individual user profile:
   1. Display language: Check Use my Google Account's preferred language to match your Merchant Center interface language to your Google Account (this applies only to you and doesn't affect other users or the account time zone).
   2. Email preferences: Choose which email notifications you want to receive (such as News and tips, Surveys and pilots, Opportunities, Product data alerts, Orders, Returns, and Performance).