Availability date [availability_date]

Use the availability date [availability_date] attribute to tell customers when a preordered or backordered product will be shipped.

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When to use

  • Optional Optional for each product
  • Required Required if you set the availability [availability] attribute to preorder or backorder. (You can then provide the date (up to 1 year in the future) when your product will be available and get shipped using the availability date [availability_date] attribute).

Format

Follow these formatting guidelines to make sure Google understands the data you're submitting. Learn how to Submit attributes and attribute values.

Formatting specifications
Technical name availability_date
Type Date, time, and timezone, ISO 8601 compliant
(YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm[±hhmm], or YYYY-MM-DDThh:mmZ)
Limits 1 – 25 characters
Repeated field No

Schema.org property (What’s this?)

Offer.availabilityStarts, Type: DateTime

File format examples

To ensure your attribute is recognized correctly, use the formatting specific to your data source type.

Data source format Examples
Text (TSV or CSV) data sources

2016-12-25T13:00-0800

XML data sources <g:availability_date>2016-11-25T13:00-0800</g:availability_date>

Merchant API

To format your data in the Merchant API, check the Merchant API resource.

Note: To ensure that this product data attribute gets recognized by our system correctly, remember to submit your data source file in a format that we support.

Minimum requirements

These are the requirements you'll need to meet to show your product. If you don't follow these requirements, we'll disapprove your product and let you know in your Merchant Center account.

  • There are no minimum requirements for this attribute. Keep in mind that you still need to follow the formatting guidelines or the information you submit can't be used.
Note: The availability date should also be added to the product’s landing page and be clear to your customers (for example, “May 6, 2023”). If an exact date can’t be provided, you can use an estimated date (for example, “May 2023”).

Best practices

These best practices can help you go beyond the basic requirements to optimize your product data for performance.

  • Submit the availability date attribute for products with the availability [availability] attribute value set to preorder or backorder.
  • Specify a time and timezone in addition to the date. If you don't, the default time is 12 AM, midnight, in the UTC timezone.
  • Don’t include date ranges. Since the attribute is required for products with the availability [availability] attribute value set to preorder or backorder, Google recommends adding an estimated date (up to 1 year in the future) and updating the value as soon as the expected date the product can be shipped to the consumer is confirmed.


Examples

Product is available for preorders

An illustration of an android plush

Product data for an android squishable
Attribute Value
Availability [availability] preorder
Availability date [availability_date] 2016-12-25T13:00-0800
Product is available for backorder

An illustration of an android plush

Product data for an android squishable
Attribute Value
Availability [availability] backorder
Availability date [availability_date] 2016-12-25T13:00-0800
Get ready for the release date

An illustration of an android plush

Product data for an android squishable
Release status Not released
Attribute Value
Availability [availability] preorder
Availability date [availability_date] 2016-12-25T13:00-0800

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