How can we help?

1. Open the Chrome Web Store listing and choose Add to Chrome.
2. Click the puzzle-piece icon in Chrome’s toolbar and pin Merchant Guard so it’s always one click away.
3. Click the Merchant Guard icon. It opens in Chrome’s side panel, next to whatever page you’re on.

Merchant Guard works in Google Chrome and other Chromium browsers that support side panels, such as Microsoft Edge and Brave, on Windows, Mac, Linux and ChromeOS.

The full walkthrough is in Getting started.

The score, out of 100, shows how much of your catalogue Google can show, weighted by how serious each issue is. Disapprovals and account warnings lower it most; minor “limited performance” issues lower it a little.

A score above 90 usually means only small improvements are left. The score updates every time you scan, and Pro shows how it changes over time.

Yes. Use the account picker at the top of the side panel. If you use an advanced account (multi-client account), Merchant Guard lists each sub-account separately so you can scan them one at a time. Agency monitors up to 25 accounts around the clock.

No. It only runs when the side panel is open or when you start a scan. 24/7 monitoring runs on our servers, not in your browser.

Use the Google account you sign in to Merchant Center with. It needs Admin or Standard access to the Merchant Center account to read issues and apply fixes. Read-only users can scan but can’t apply fixes.

If you have more than one Google account in Chrome, Google asks which one to use. You can switch later from Settings in the side panel.

Google reviews every app that asks for Merchant Center access. If you see one of these messages, the most common causes are:

• You’re signed in to Chrome with a work account whose administrator restricts third-party apps. Ask your Google Workspace admin to allow Merchant Guard, or connect a different Google account that has access to Merchant Center.
• You were invited to an early-access version. Early-access builds only work for Google accounts we’ve added. Email support@merchant-guard.co.uk with the Google address you want to use.

If neither applies, send us a screenshot of the message and we’ll sort it out.

Google requires every app that uses the Merchant API to complete a one-time registration. If you see this message, our registration hasn’t reached your account yet. It’s on our side, not yours: email support@merchant-guard.co.uk with your Merchant Center account ID and we’ll fix it, usually the same day.

Google’s permission screen asks you to allow three things:

• Manage your product listings and accounts for Google Shopping. This is the Merchant Center permission. It lets Merchant Guard read your issues and products, and write the fixes you approve.
• Your email address, so we know which Merchant Guard account is yours.
• Your basic profile, used for sign-in only.

Merchant Guard only changes product data when you press Apply. See the security overview for more.

In the side panel, open Settings and choose Disconnect next to Google connection. To remove access completely, also visit your Google account’s third-party access page and remove Merchant Guard. Fixes you’ve already applied stay in Merchant Center.

By default, Merchant Guard writes fixes to a separate supplemental data source in your Merchant Center called “Merchant Guard fixes”. It contains only the attributes you fixed (for example the price of 14 products) and Merchant Guard links it to your main feed so its values take priority.

Your original feed, whether it comes from Shopify, WooCommerce, a spreadsheet, a scheduled file or the API, isn’t touched and keeps syncing as normal. To go back to your original values, undo the fix or delete the “Merchant Guard fixes” source in Merchant Center under Settings, Data sources.

Advanced users with an API data source can choose to write directly to it instead, under “Advanced: where fixes are written”.

A fixed value stays in place until you change or undo it, so a later price change on your website can cause a new mismatch. Two ways to stay ahead of it:

• Turn on automatic item updates (one click on the Home tab). Google then uses the price and stock on your product pages when they differ from your data, which prevents most mismatch disapprovals.
• Run the fix again. If a mismatch comes back, Merchant Guard flags it on your next scan (and in a monitoring alert on Pro) and the price fix reads the new price from your website.

Once your feed itself is correct again, you can undo the old fix from the fix history to hand control back to your feed.

Google normally processes changes within a few hours, sometimes up to a few days for products that need to be re-crawled. Merchant Guard re-checks fixed products on your next scan and marks each fix as cleared or still open.

From your own store, never from guesswork:

• Your product pages: the price, stock status, images, brand and barcodes in the product markup on each page.
• Shopify: variant prices, inventory, barcodes and SKUs, if you connect your store (Pro).
• A spreadsheet: choose “From a spreadsheet” and upload a CSV with an ID or SKU column and a column for the value (for example “price” or “barcode”). WooCommerce, Shopify and Google Sheets exports work as they are. The file is read on your computer and isn’t uploaded to us.
• Claude: for titles, descriptions, colours and categories, drafted from your product data for you to check.

Every proposed value shows where it came from, and you can edit any of them before applying.

Because inventing a GTIN gets products disapproved, and can get an account suspended. Merchant Guard only uses barcodes from your store data, your files or your packaging, and checks each one’s check digit. If your products genuinely don’t have barcodes (handmade, custom or own-brand items, for example), choose These products don’t have barcodes in the barcode fix. Merchant Guard then tells Google they have no identifiers, which is what Google asks for.

Yes. Open Tools, then Fix history. Every change lists the product, the old and new value and when it was made. Choose Undo on any entry and your original value applies again once Google processes it.

Some problems can’t be fixed by changing product data. Shipping, tax and return settings live in your Merchant Center account settings, so Merchant Guard shows Google’s own fix action for your account right in the panel. Policy issues need a human judgement, so you get a checklist and the assistant can review your site with you.

Merchant Guard can’t lift a suspension; only Google can, after a review. What it can do is show the exact reason Google gives, check your products and website for the usual causes (for example misrepresentation, missing contact details, unclear return policy or mismatched prices), help you fix them and tell you when you’re ready to request a review. Requesting a review too early can mean a longer wait before the next one, so it’s worth getting this right.

The assistant is powered by Claude, an AI model made by Anthropic. On paid plans it can look up your live Merchant Center issues and products, read Google’s explanations, check your product pages and search Google’s help pages. It can then prepare a fix for you to review and apply.

It can’t change anything on its own. Every proposed change appears as a card with an Apply button.

Two things. First, it remembers useful facts about your store, such as which platform you use or that you sell refurbished items, so you don’t have to repeat yourself. You can see and delete these memories in your account, or turn memory off.

Second, Merchant Guard learns which fixes clear which issues across all stores, using anonymous counts only (for example “price fixes from the website cleared 97% of mismatches”). When you rate an answer and choose to share it, our team may turn it into a general lesson. Lessons never include your products or store details.

No. Merchant Guard doesn’t train models, and Anthropic doesn’t train its models on data sent through its commercial API.

1. In the side panel, open Tools and choose 24/7 monitoring and alerts. You can also start from your account.
2. Choose Turn on 24/7 monitoring. Google asks you to approve offline access, so Merchant Guard can check your account while your computer is off.
3. Choose how often to check: every 3, 6, 12 or 24 hours on Pro, or every hour on Agency.

Only changes: new account issues, new product disapprovals, or a significant drop in your health score. You won’t get an email when nothing has changed. You can turn email off for any account and still see alerts in the side panel.

Check your spam folder for mail from Merchant Guard and mark it as not spam. Make sure email alerts are on for that account in your account. If monitoring shows an error, choose Reconnect: Google sometimes asks for permission again after a password change.

Connecting Shopify (Pro) gives fixes access to your real variant prices, stock levels, barcodes and SKUs, so Merchant Guard can fix price, stock and GTIN issues straight from your store’s data. Access is read-only: Merchant Guard never changes anything in Shopify.

In the side panel open Tools, then Shopify, enter your your-store.myshopify.com address and approve the connection in Shopify. To disconnect, choose Disconnect in the same place or in your account, or uninstall the app from your Shopify admin.

Yes. Fixes can use your product pages or a spreadsheet instead, and they work with any feed type.

Choose a plan on the pricing page or select Upgrade in the side panel. Checkout is handled by Stripe. Your new features unlock within a few seconds of payment.

Go to your account and choose Manage subscription. From there you can switch plans, update your card, download invoices or cancel. If you cancel, you keep paid features until the end of the current billing period.

Open Settings in the side panel and choose Refresh, or close and reopen the panel. Make sure you’re signed in to the extension with the same Google account you used at checkout. If it still says Free after a few minutes, email us your receipt and we’ll fix it straight away.

Assistant questions, product page checks and AI-drafted values each have a daily allowance that resets every day at midnight UTC. Scanning, browsing issues, applying fixes and undoing them are never limited. Your usage is shown in your account.

Your email address, plan, assistant conversations, the memories you allow, fix history counts, and for monitoring, a summary of each check (score and issue counts). We don’t keep a copy of your product catalogue. The full list is in our privacy policy.

In your account, choose Download my data for a copy of everything we hold, or Delete my account to remove it permanently. Deleting also cancels any subscription and disconnects monitoring and Shopify.