What is the use of prefixing product IDs?

In your module "Basic settings" tab, you have the ability to indicate a prefix for the product IDs:

This prefix is not obligatory but it must be useful and here is why:

If you complete this prefix, in your data feed XML file, the module will build for each of your products a unique identifier (ID):

For example: MSEN1v1

This ID is like the "fingerprint" of your product and it allows the product to be uniquely identified.

It's made up of a prefix, a country code (for example EN for England), a numeral code (1, 2, 3, 4, etc...) that matches the product ID in your PrestaShop back office and, if you chose to export each product combination as a single product, you will also have a code that indicates the combination.

To make this ID, the module will automatically fetch the country code, the numeral code and the combination code. But you also have the ability to indicate a prefix, that could be for example your shop name's initials and that will be the same for all your products. This will provide an unique way to identify your products that will be exported with our module in your Google Merchant Center account. This may be very useful for tracking the origin of the products, especially if you manage several different shops : by including a different prefix for each shop you will know from which shop a product comes from. This gives you an additional filter option.

The name you choose for the prefix isn't important but we advise you to put your shop's name's initials. For example, if your shop's name is "Mary's shop", you can choose to write "MS". 2 or 3 characters are enough.

Note: from the Google Merchant Center 4.7.16 version and the 1.7.0 of its PRO version, you can also decide to have product "simple" IDs, i.e only made up of the numeral code corresponding to the product ID in your PrestaShop back office. You just have to select "YES" for the related option (the option label can change according to the version of the module):

To read the FAQ about simple product IDs, click here.

To know more on the building of the IDs of the items in the feed, click here.