MERCHANT CENTER FEED

What Is Microsoft Merchant Center?

Microsoft Merchant Center (MMC) is the product catalogue management system for Microsoft Advertising. It stores your product data and makes it available to Shopping campaigns, Performance Max, Showroom Ads and Copilot Checkout. A well-optimised feed in MMC is foundational to performance across all of Microsoft’s AI commerce products.

Why Your Feed Matters More Than Ever

With the launch of Copilot Checkout and Showroom Ads, your MMC feed is no longer just a Shopping campaign data source — it’s the product database that Copilot uses to recommend your products in AI conversations. Feed quality directly impacts:

  • Whether your products surface in Copilot conversations at all
  • The accuracy of Copilot’s product descriptions and recommendations
  • Showroom Ad quality and engagement rates
  • Copilot Checkout conversion rates

Store Setup & Domain Verification

  1. Navigate to Microsoft Advertising → Tools → Microsoft Merchant Center
  2. Create a new store and enter your business details
  3. Verify your store URL via the DNS TXT record or HTML meta tag method
  4. Configure your target markets and currencies
  5. Set your shipping settings to match your live storefront
  6. Accept Microsoft’s Shopping policies

Feed Specifications

Microsoft Merchant Center feeds use the Google Shopping feed format, making it straightforward to reuse feeds already submitted to Google Merchant Center.

Required fields

  • id — unique product identifier
  • title — product name (up to 150 characters)
  • description — product description (up to 10,000 characters)
  • link — canonical product page URL
  • image_link — primary product image URL
  • price — current selling price with currency
  • availability — in stock / out of stock / preorder
  • condition — new / used / refurbished
  • brand
  • gtin or mpn

Recommended additional fields for Copilot

  • additional_image_link — multiple product images (up to 10)
  • product_type — your taxonomy path
  • google_product_category
  • sale_price & sale_price_effective_date

Feed Submission Methods

Three options for keeping your feed fresh:

  • Scheduled fetch: MMC fetches your feed URL on a schedule (daily recommended)
  • Manual upload: Upload a TSV or XML file directly. Suitable for smaller catalogues.
  • Content API: Direct API integration for real-time feed updates. Essential for large catalogues or frequent price/stock changes.

Feed Optimisation for Copilot

Standard feed optimisation focuses on titles and images. For Copilot compatibility, extend optimisation to descriptions:

  • Write descriptions as complete sentences, not keyword lists
  • Include key attributes early: material, dimensions, compatibility
  • Structure for AI parsing: “[Product name] is a [category] designed for [use case]. It features [key attributes] and is available in [variants].”
  • Keep prices in sync: discrepancies between feed and live site cause disapprovals and reduce Copilot recommendation quality

Independence notice: CopilotAdvertising.ai is not affiliated with Microsoft Corporation. All Microsoft product names are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation used for editorial purposes only.