Merchant Center needs to know your shipping rates and tax rules independently of what your actual checkout charges, and a mismatch between the two — Merchant Center saying free shipping while checkout charges for it, or the reverse — is a common, specific cause of product disapproval separate from anything about the product listing itself.
Merchant Center shipping & tax configuration
Merchant Center's shipping and tax settings made to actually match what checkout charges.
- Full backup taken before we start
- If we can’t fix it, you get your money back
- We never ask for your own password
What we need from you
- Your actual shipping rates and rules as they apply at checkout, by country if you sell internationally
- Your tax configuration, including anywhere you’re required to charge tax
- Confirmation of any free shipping thresholds or promotions currently in effect
This or something else?
| Merchant Center’s shipping or tax settings need configuring to match your actual checkout | This fix covers it |
| Products are disapproved for a price mismatch, not shipping/tax specifically | Structured data vs feed price mismatch |
| You sell to multiple countries each needing different shipping/tax rules | This fix covers it; more involved but the same underlying task |
| You want automatic price updates when you change your store’s pricing | Automatic item updates & price mismatch fix, a related but separate service |
What we do
- Confirm your actual, current shipping rates and rules at checkout
- Confirm applicable tax rules for every region you sell to
- Configure Merchant Center’s shipping settings to match exactly
- Configure tax settings, using automatic tax where supported or manual rules where needed
- Cross-check configured settings against real checkout behaviour with a test scenario
- Monitor for shipping or tax-related disapprovals clearing
What is included
- Merchant Center shipping settings matching your actual checkout behaviour
- Tax configuration matching your applicable rules
- Verification against a real checkout test
- A written note on the configuration for future reference
Not included
- Setting up your actual store’s shipping or tax rules, if those aren’t already correctly configured in WooCommerce itself
- Ongoing updates as your shipping rates or tax obligations change
- Tax advice on what you’re legally required to charge — that’s a separate, professional question
- Fixing unrelated product data or policy issues
Questions about this fix
Why does Merchant Center need this separately from my store's own settings?
Because Merchant Center doesn't automatically read your checkout's live configuration — it needs its own explicit shipping and tax rules that should match, but aren't pulled from your store directly.
What happens if these don't match what checkout actually charges?
Google can disapprove products or limit visibility for a mismatch, since showing 'free shipping' that then charges for it at checkout is misleading to shoppers, whether or not that was the intent.
Do I need to update this every time I change a shipping rate?
Yes, in principle — this configuration reflects a snapshot of your current rules, so a later change to actual shipping rates would need a matching update here to stay accurate.
Can Merchant Center calculate tax automatically for me?
For some regions, yes, Google offers automatic tax calculation — we set this up where supported and configure manual rules where it isn't.
What if I sell to countries with very different tax rules?
We configure settings per country as needed — this is more involved with more countries, but the underlying task (matching Merchant Center to reality) is the same.
Related fixes
If this is the second time this year
A bad update breaking the site is a symptom of updates not being tested first. Care plans run every update on a staging clone before it reaches your live site, which is the actual fix for this happening again.
Your access, your rules
Create a separate admin account for us and delete it when we are done. For anything else, we get in touch and agree a method — never a form field on this site, never by reply to an email.
We back up first, always
Before anything is touched we take a full backup and keep it for 30 days. If a fix goes wrong, we put the site back exactly as it was.
If it is not what you bought
If the problem turns out smaller than what you ordered, we refund the difference. If it is bigger, we stop and send a quote before doing any extra work.
If we cannot fix it
You get back what we received. Diagnosis is on us — you only pay when the problem is actually solved. The payment processor takes its fee before the money reaches us, so we never hold it and it is not ours to return. That is true here as everywhere else.
If it comes back
Reply within seven days of delivery and we put it back on the bench at no cost. The fix is not finished until it holds.
What we are responsible for
If something goes wrong with a fix, our responsibility is limited to what you paid for it. We take a full backup first so mistakes can be undone, and we tell you before doing anything outside what you bought.