Microsoft Merchant Center is where you send your product catalog to Bing, Microsoft’s shopping surfaces and Copilot, and for most US stores the quickest way to set it up is to import an already clean Google Merchant Center feed. The import takes an afternoon. Making the data worth importing is the part that takes real time.
Many US stores have never opened it, so a whole shopping channel sits unused. This guide covers the setup steps, the decision between import and a direct feed, a pre-import audit you can run yourself, and the mistakes that quietly break a Microsoft feed. It sits in our wider Microsoft Merchant Center work, and it assumes you already know the basics of Google Merchant Center.
Why does Microsoft Merchant Center matter now?
It is the direct route into Bing and Copilot product results. Bing powers search on Microsoft products and in Copilot. In January 2026 Microsoft launched Copilot Checkout with PayPal, Shopify and Stripe, so shoppers can buy without leaving the assistant. Product data in Microsoft Merchant Center is the starting point for that experience.
Be realistic about scale. Google remains the larger source of shopping discovery for most US stores, which is why we compare the three channels in Google vs Microsoft Merchant Center vs ChatGPT Shopping. Microsoft is the cheap second step: you already did the hard data work for Google, and this reuses it.
How do you set up Microsoft Merchant Center, step by step?
Create a Microsoft Advertising account, create a store, verify the website, add the catalog, review issues, then turn on free listings where available. The order matters because each step depends on the one before it.
- Create a Microsoft Advertising account. Microsoft Merchant Center lives inside it. Use a business email that more than one person can access.
- Create a store in Merchant Center and verify your website. The store name and domain should match what shoppers see on your site.
- Add your catalog. You can import from Google Merchant Center, upload a feed file or connect through your platform.
- Review issues. Like Google, Microsoft reviews products and flags problems with data or policies.
- Turn on free listings where available, and decide whether to run Shopping campaigns.
Menu names and screens change. Check Microsoft Advertising’s current help pages for the exact path before you start, and treat the list above as the sequence, not a click-by-click script.
Should you import from Google, upload a feed file or use a platform connector?
Import if your Google feed is approved and clean, use a feed file if you need Microsoft-specific changes, and use a platform connector if your platform offers one and you do not maintain a separate feed. Here is how the three routes compare.
| Route | Best when | What to watch |
|---|---|---|
| Import from Google Merchant Center | Your Google feed is approved and has few open issues | Errors in Google are copied into Microsoft. The import only helps if it keeps running. |
| Feed file upload | You need titles, categories or attributes that differ from Google, or you have no Google feed | You own the file. Someone must refresh it on a schedule or it goes stale. |
| Platform connector | Your ecommerce platform offers a Microsoft channel | You inherit the platform’s field mapping. Check what it leaves out. |
Most stores should start with the import, then move a few products or fields to a separate feed only when they have a concrete reason.
What should you check before you import?
Audit the Google feed first, because the import copies it as it is. Run this list in order; it takes a few hours for a catalog of a few thousand products.
- Open the Google Merchant Center diagnostics and fix every item-level issue that affects a large share of products. A single mapping error often explains most of them.
- Check identity fields. Brand is spelled the same everywhere, GTINs are valid for products that have them, and MPN is filled when they do not.
- Compare five random products against their pages. Price, availability and title in the feed must match what a shopper sees on the product page.
- Read your shipping and returns settings. Shoppers and assistants weigh delivery time and returns, so a setting that is out of date in Google will be out of date in Microsoft too.
- Look at titles. They should start with what the product is, then brand and key attributes. Titles stuffed with promotional text read badly in an assistant.
- Confirm the website is verified in the Microsoft store and matches the domain in the feed.
- Run the import, then compare product counts. If Google shows a few thousand approved items and Microsoft shows far fewer, find out why before you touch campaigns.
- Put the import on a schedule and check the next day that a price change made in Google arrived.
What does a hypothetical store look like in practice?
Imagine a US store with a few thousand SKUs that sells home goods and has a healthy Google Merchant Center account. It imports the feed into Microsoft and sees most products approved. A few hundred are flagged. The cause turns out to be a single field: the brand attribute is empty on one product line because the platform stored the manufacturer in a custom field.
The fix is in the source, not in Microsoft. Map the manufacturer to brand once in the platform or feed tool, let Google reprocess it, and the next import carries the correction. Fixing it only in Microsoft would leave Google wrong and the problem would return after the next import. This is the practical meaning of «one source of truth», which we describe in one product feed for every AI channel.
This example is illustrative. Your product lines and causes will differ, but the method is the same: find the pattern, fix it at the source, re-import, compare counts.
What are the common mistakes, and how do you spot them?
Most Microsoft feed problems are inherited, stale or mismatched. Each has a symptom you can find in the data.
| Mistake | Symptom you will see | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Website not verified or not matching the store | The store is stuck at review, or products do not publish | Verify the exact domain used in the product links |
| Missing identifiers or brand | Flagged items clustered in one product line or brand | Fix the mapping at the source and re-import |
| Price or availability differs from the page | Disapprovals for mismatch, or shoppers see a different price after the click | Update the feed as often as the site changes |
| Import stopped after the first run | A price changed in Google days ago and Microsoft still shows the old one | Check the schedule and the import status |
| Google errors copied across | The same issue text appears in both consoles | Resolve it once, in Google |
What does Copilot need from your product data?
Complete, current and unambiguous data, the same things every AI shopping surface reads. The quality of your data decides how often Copilot and Bing show your products, and nobody can promise placement. Our guide to the product data AI shopping agents read covers the fields that matter, and ChatGPT vs Gemini vs Copilot explains how Copilot differs from the other assistants.
Copilot Checkout adds a further layer: payment partners, platform eligibility and program rules that Microsoft can change. Check Microsoft’s current program information before you plan around it. Because many shoppers research in an assistant and then buy on the store’s website, we suggest measuring AI as a discovery channel; Discover in AI, buy on your site explains why.
When does Microsoft Merchant Center not make sense?
It is not worth the effort yet if your Google feed is still full of errors, if you cannot keep price and stock current, or if your catalog is a handful of products that change rarely and sell mainly through one marketplace. Fix the Google feed first. Adding a second channel to a broken feed only doubles the cleanup.
It also makes less sense if your platform handles Microsoft automatically and you have no way to see or edit what it sends. In that case, ask what is being sent before assuming it is working.
What should you ask your team or agency before starting?
- Who owns the master product data, and where is it edited?
- Will Microsoft use an import, a separate file or a platform connector, and why?
- How often does it refresh, and who checks that it did?
- Which fields differ between the Google and Microsoft versions, if any?
- How will we tell if a product is disapproved, and who fixes it?
- What is the plan if Microsoft changes a program, such as checkout, that we depend on?
How Avafa works
We start from the data, not the channel. Our Microsoft Merchant Center agency service audits the source catalog, sets up the store and the import or feed, and checks that updates keep flowing. The same catalog work is the base of our Google Merchant Center agency service, and we explain that approach in what a Merchant Center agency does. Avafa is a consultancy based in Spain and works remotely. We do not guarantee placement in Copilot or Bing results, and we do not manage ad spend.
Where to go next
If you are planning several channels, read the agentic commerce readiness checklist to see where Microsoft sits in the order of work, and agentic commerce explained for the bigger picture.
FAQs
Is Microsoft Merchant Center free?
Creating the store and listing products for free, where available, costs nothing. You pay only if you choose to run advertising campaigns.
Do I need a separate feed for Microsoft?
Not necessarily. Importing from Google Merchant Center works for many stores. Use a separate file only when you need data that differs from Google.
Will importing from Google fix my errors?
No. The import copies the data as it is, so errors in Google become errors in Microsoft. Fix them at the source and let the next import carry the correction.
How do I know the import is still running?
Change a price on a test product, then check Microsoft after the next scheduled run. If the old price is still there, check the schedule and the import status.
Does being in Microsoft Merchant Center guarantee a spot in Copilot?
No. A clean feed makes your products eligible and easier to match, but nobody can guarantee placement in Copilot or Bing.
Do I have to use Copilot Checkout?
No. You can use Microsoft Merchant Center to be found and send shoppers to your own site. Checkout programs have eligibility rules, so check Microsoft’s current information.
