Why Your Sale Price Isn’t Displaying on Google Shopping
A common question our experts at Shoptimised are asked is:
“Why am I not getting the sale price strike-through on my listings?”
The strike-through effect boosts click-through rates, as it visually indicates a discount and helps customers quickly understand the savings they're getting.
What Do You Need to Display Your Sale Price?
Every product in your Shopping feed must include a price attribute — without it, the product will be disapproved.
To show a sale price, you must also use the sale_price attribute. However, simply having both isn’t enough; Google has specific requirements for a sale price to trigger a strike-through annotation.
- The sale price must be lower than the regular price
- The discount must be greater than 5% and less than 90%
- The base price of the product must be valid for 30 days within the past 200 days (doesn't need to be consecutive days).
- The sale price and regular price must be shown on the landing page.
However even if you do meet these requirements, Google does have the disclaimer:
Sale price annotations aren't always guaranteed to show, even if you meet the requirements above. This is because Google wants to ensure that the best performing annotations surface on your offers.
So while meeting the criteria usually works, there are other reasons why your sale price might not be showing.
Most Common Sale Price Issue We See
If your feed historically hasn’t used the sale_price attribute and instead has just updated the price directly to reflect a discount, you may run into issues.
For example:
- The product is originally listed at £35.99.
- You reduce the price to £24.99 and update the price attribute.
- Your feed is published to the Merchant Center.
- No sale_price was ever used — so the product doesn’t show as being "on sale."
Now:
- You add the sale_price as £24.99.
- And revert the price back to £35.99.
Even though this now looks correct, Google will not display a strike-through, because it saw the £24.99 as the standard price during the past 200 days. In Google's view, this is not a current sale.
Other Common Scenarios That Prevent Sale Price Annotations
- Your product has always been below RRP, and you've never listed it at the full price and you want to show this with a sale price listing. Your product has never been listed at the RRP, therefore Google will not see this as a product that is on sale.
- You update prices instead of using sale_price, which breaks the historical price tracking needed to qualify for the annotation, so if you do start using Sale Price you may have to wait for until this product meets criteria.
What About Other Google Shopping Annotations?
There are several annotations in Google Shopping that, like sale_price, are not guaranteed to show and are at Google's discretion. They're automated and influenced by the quality of your feed, data accuracy, and your site setup.
Here are a few key examples:
Free & Fast Delivery
Possible annotations:
- Free Delivery
- Free 2-Day Delivery
Requirements:
- Set up Free Shipping in Merchant Center or in your product feed.
- Your landing page and checkout must reflect this clearly.
- Accurate delivery times must be included in both the feed and your website.
Same Day Delivery (Currently U.S. only)
- Must be able to deliver 90% of inventory within 5 minutes to 6 hours.
- Merchant Center must show 0-day handling and 0-day transit times.
- Admin must contact Google support and provide proof via the shipping policy on your website.
Price Drop
- Displays the current price with a “Was” price underneath.
- Can show if the current price is 5% or more lower than the average price over the last 60 days.
- Will also show a “Price Drop” badge.
Other Product Attributes
- Google may surface extra details like material, size, or features.
- Ensure all attributes are complete in your feed and appear on the product landing page.
Return Policy
- For annotations like "Free Returns" or "60-Day Returns", your return policy must be added in Merchant Center under Delivery and Returns and must match the policy on your site.
If you want your feed in top shape and to maximise your chances of displaying all eligible annotations, speak to one of our feed experts today. We'll walk you through a 30-minute demo of our award-winning feed optimisation software - Book A Demo today
