Prepare AI Images for Google Shopping

Google Merchant Center’s AI-generated-content guidance requires generative-AI images to contain metadata identifying their AI origin. It also tells merchants not to remove embedded DigitalSourceType information. The relevant provenance belongs in the delivered image file; writing AI in a filename or adding a page caption is not an equivalent replacement.

IPTC defines source-type vocabulary including trained algorithmic media and composite synthetic media. Select the appropriate provenance for the actual production method, and preserve it through subsequent exports. Do not claim that this article’s editorial illustrations have passed a Merchant Center review, or that any creative application automatically satisfies the complete submission process.

These are independent checks. Correct metadata cannot rescue a picture of the wrong variant. An accurate garment can still be presented with unsuitable promotional overlays. A clean-looking image can still lose required provenance during export. Assign each check to a named person instead of expecting visual review to cover invisible file information.

For apparel, compare product-defining features with the original photographs: colour, pattern, closures and silhouette. Use the real item as the reference when reviewing an on-model interpretation. Avoid recreating a supplier image from memory or assuming that a plausible generated texture is the fabric that the customer will receive.

Write the intended path from source photographs to creative output, retouching, compression and delivery. Each stage can create a new file. Tell the people responsible for those stages which provenance must survive and where the final approved copy will be stored. A source file alone is not the submission asset.

Keep one authoritative product source and a separate approved output. Record the export format, file location and responsible owner. If an image changes after approval, replace the approval record as well. This makes a disputed collar, variant mismatch or missing metadata traceable without asking the whole team to reconstruct an editing session.

Google’s image-link guidance covers readable actual products and excludes promotional overlays from the main image. Its page also announces a 500 by 500 minimum for all products from January 31, 2027 and recommends larger imagery. Keep that future effective date distinct from the requirements applying to your current submission.

Prepare a high-resolution source that can support the intended product view without clipping important features. Check the current destination documentation when delivering rather than assuming every ad, storefront and feed uses the same rule. The illustrative shirt shown here explains a composition; it is not an approved feed asset or a downloadable compliance template.

Studiola can help a team assemble garment, model and scene references while developing the image direction. That is the creative preparation stage. The merchant or publishing team still needs to manage variant mapping, export provenance and the destination’s current requirements. Do not imply that an attractive preview is already a live Shopping listing.

Make the handoff small enough to follow: approved file, exact variant, intended image role and provenance instruction. Keep a clean source available for corrections. A reusable brief can reduce repeated explanation across a collection, while the final acceptance decision remains specific to each item and destination.

Review the exact file being submitted, not merely the preview that the creative team saw. Confirm that a later resize or edit has not changed the product view or discarded information needed by the publishing workflow. Keep the owner of the product data involved when an image introduces a new variant interpretation.

This guide explains a production handoff; it does not certify policy acceptance or promise that a listing will be shown. Revisit the linked official documentation when requirements change. A clear product record and preserved provenance make the process easier to manage without confusing a creative result with platform approval.