How to Start UCP integration in Merchant Center

The "UCP integration" page in Merchant Center guides you through the steps to set up and validate your UCP integration.

The implementation process consists of five main stages:

Implement UCP by following the guide instructions: understand the core UCP concepts and technical requirements.
Set up your Merchant Center account for UCP: configure your product data and account settings.
Test your UCP implementation in a sandbox environment: safely test and debug your integration.
Validate your UCP integration in production: confirm your integration works correctly in your live environment.
Monitor and optimize your integration: understand your performance and identify new opportunities in Merchant Center.

Access the UCP integration tab

As the onboarding experience rolls out in the US during this early access phase, you will find a dedicated UCP integration tab in the navigation menu.

In your Google Merchant Center account, click Settings in the left navigation menu.
Select UCP integration.

1. Implement UCP by following the guide instructions

Review the UCP implementation guide to understand the integration steps. This guide covers the core API specifications and concepts.

2. Set up your Merchant Center account for UCP

Click Start on the Configure your Merchant Center account for UCP card to configure your Merchant Center settings and complete the checklist. This ensures your products are discoverable and ready for UCP-powered checkout. Click Done after completing each step.

3. Test your UCP implementation in a sandbox environment

Click Test on the Test your UCP implementation in a sandbox environment card to access the "UCP sandbox integration" page. This lets you safely test your integration in different use cases and review the responses from your server.

Set up Checkout API Keys

To enable Google to call your APIs for testing and production, you need to provide API keys from your system. These keys are used to authenticate requests from Google to your endpoints.

Requirements: Google will encrypt and store your domains and associated API keys. You should generate dedicated keys for this integration.
Environments: you will need to provide separate API keys for your staging (sandbox) and production environments.
Submission: contact us by email to discuss supported methods and exchange keys. You can find our contact email by navigating to Settings > UCP integration.

Provide your UCP profile location and credentials

To test your UCP integration in the sandbox environment, you need to provide the following information:

UCP profile location: provide the path to the /.well-known/ucp file you want to test. This URL allows Google to discover your server's capabilities and API endpoints.
API Key: enter the API key if your test environment requires it for authenticating requests.
Override access_token: optionally, provide a specific OAuth Bearer token here to be used for API requests.

Simulate checkout actions

You can simulate various checkout actions to ensure your integration works as expected:

Create checkout: tests initiating a new checkout process. Enter the request details in the provided JSON editor and click Test. See an example.
Update checkout: tests handling updates to an existing checkout (e.g., changes to shipping information). Use the id from the CreateCheckout response. See an example.
Complete checkout: simulates the final purchase step to verify successful transaction completion. See an example.

4. Validate your UCP integration in production

Click Validate on the Validate your UCP integration in production card to start the production validation process. This checklist ensures your UCP integration works correctly in a live environment.

Complete the following validation steps:

Set up your Merchant Center account for UCP: ensures all configurations are complete. Click Set up if you need to revisit the checklist.
Publish Merchant UCP Profile: allows Google to discover your services, capabilities, payment handlers, and public keys for verification. Click Validate.
- Add your Merchant UCP Profile location URL (e.g., https://example.com/.well-known/ucp).
- Click Done. You should see the discovered capabilities.
- Learn more about Merchant UCP Profile.
Choose a path for user identification: select how users will identify themselves during checkout. Consult with your legal team on any questions regarding privacy regulations and consent practices. Click Validate to configure this step. You have two options:
- Guest checkout: provides fewer steps for customers and is optimized for conversion.
- Identity linking: allows customers to access loyalty benefits and personalized offers.
  - Requires OAuth 2.0 implementation. If you haven't implemented OAuth 2.0, this option will be disabled.
- To enable Identity Linking:
  - Implement your OAuth 2.0 endpoints, following the OAuth 2.0 Authorization Code flow.
  - Declare the capability in your Merchant UCP Profile: Ensure your /.well-known/ucp file includes dev.ucp.common.identity_linking in the capabilities list.
  - Publish your OAuth Authorization Server Metadata: Create and host a JSON file at /.well-known/oauth-authorization-server on your domain. This file must conform to RFC 8414 and include details like your authorization, token, and revocation endpoints.
  - Once you have completed the technical setup, Google will validate your identity linking flow and let you know when it is ready for you to test.
For the specific structure, required fields, and an example, see the Identity Linking - OAuth 2.0 guide.
Complete native checkout integration: implement and validate the 3 core REST endpoints for session creation, updates, and completion. Click Validate on the main checklist to begin.
- This opens the Test checkout integration page. Validation is a multi-step process involving automatic testing, schema verification, and a mandatory waitlist review.
- Select authentication method: choose how to authenticate for the test:
  - Linked Google account: validate using your linked Google Account.
  - Override access_token text input: manually provide an access token for testing. This will be passed in the Authorization header (Bearer).
- Click Test to initiate the validation process with the selected authentication method. This will likely involve further steps to test product selection, shipping details, and the checkout flow.
- Review any results or errors provided after running the tests.
- Click Done when you have completed your testing on this page.
Sync order status: configure webhooks to send order updates to Google. Click Validate on the main checklist to access the UCP order status validation page. Contact us by email to obtain the {PARTNER_ID} and {PROD_KEY} values. You can find our contact email by navigating to Settings > UCP integration.
- Get the Google endpoint URL: use this endpoint to send webhook requests. Replace the placeholders ({PARTNER_ID}, {PROD_KEY}) with your specific values.
```
https://shoppingdataintegration.googleapis.com/v1/webhooks/partners/{PARTNER_ID}/events/order?key={PROD_KEY}
```
- Test your webhook: send a test order status update to the Google endpoint. You can use the test order ID from the previous "Validate native checkout integration" step or click Create a new order. Google automatically validates your implementation upon receiving the request.
- Click Done to exit.

After completing all validation steps, your UCP integration will be reviewed by the Google Support team. You will be notified whether your account is live or if any setup issues need to be addressed.

5. Monitor and optimize your integration

The UCP Analytics Reporting dashboard in Google Merchant Center provides a centralized view of your UCP checkout experiences. These insights provide an array of benefits:

Track Performance: gain full visibility into the UCP checkout funnel from initial click to completed purchase.
Understand Customer Behavior: see how shoppers interact with your UCP-enabled buy flows.
Identify Opportunities: use insights to help refine your UCP integration and improve the customer journey.
Measure Impact: quantify the total volume and value of transactions driven through UCP.

How to Access

Access to this report is available to all UCP-enabled merchants. To view your data, ensure you have the 'Performance' role assigned in Merchant Center and then:

Sign in to your Google Merchant Center account.
Navigate to Settings in the left-hand menu.
Click UCP Integration.
Select the new Analytics tab.

Understand Your Metrics

The dashboard includes the following core metrics to help you evaluate your integration:

Metric	Description
Clicks to Buy	The number of times shoppers clicked the UCP 'Buy' button.
Purchases	The total number of successful transactions completed using UCP.
Purchase Rate	The percentage of 'Clicks to Buy' that resulted in a successful purchase.
Average Order Value (AOV)	The average value of each completed UCP order.
Cancellations	The number of orders canceled or refunded after purchase.
Account Linking	Metrics on account linking attempts and success rates (where applicable).
Top Selling UCP Products	A ranked list of your products driving the most sales through your UCP integration.

Order lifecycle