Retailers running local product campaigns have a new field to fill in. Search Engine Land reports that Google Merchant Center now requires a store_address attribute on products headed to two local surfaces: Local inventory ads, and the unpaid Local free listings.
The attribute ties each product to a specific physical store. Google defines it as a string of Unicode characters, with the address itself written in ASCII-encoded text. Local inventory ads are the paid listings promoting items stocked at nearby shops, while Local free listings are the unpaid equivalent.
Search Engine Land’s Anu Adegbola warns that missing or badly formatted addresses could disrupt product-to-store matching and feed compliance. The report does not say when enforcement begins or what happens to submissions that lack the field, so those details are worth confirming in Merchant Center itself.
Teams with many locations carry the most exposure, because every applicable row needs the right store tied to it. Audit the feed for the new attribute now, before gaps turn into disapproved products.
Search Engine Land, Anu Adegbola, October 14, 2026.
