Google Shopping feed optimisation looks different in Europe. Between VAT handling, currency variations, regulatory disclosures and the post-Brexit UK/EU split, merchants targeting European markets face requirements that don't exist in the US.
This guide covers the UK and EU-specific layers on top of the general Google Shopping feed optimization playbook. If you haven't read the technical guide, start there — this post assumes you already understand the universal attribute model.
VAT and the price attribute
In the EU and UK, prices in your Google Shopping feed must include VAT (or the equivalent local sales tax). This is non-negotiable: a price excluding VAT will get the product disapproved in most European markets.
Practical implications:
- Your e-commerce platform's "net price" field is usually wrong for the feed. Use the gross (VAT-inclusive) price.
- If you sell to multiple EU markets with different VAT rates (Germany 19%, France 20%, Italy 22%, Ireland 23%), each country feed needs its own price calculation.
- Display the inclusive price in the price attribute. Don't try to communicate VAT separately.
- For B2B feeds, you still include VAT but can use the tax_category attribute to signal business pricing eligibility.
Currency handling
The currency rules in Europe are stricter than they seem. One feed equals one currency. You cannot mix GBP, EUR and SEK in a single feed.
Common configurations:
- UK merchants: one feed in GBP for the UK market.
- Eurozone merchants: one feed in EUR for most EU countries, but separate feeds may still be required for language and shipping reasons.
- Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Poland, Czech Republic: SEK, DKK, NOK, PLN, CZK respectively — separate feed per currency.
- Switzerland: CHF, separate feed (and remember Switzerland is not in the EU).
Currency code format: ISO 4217 three-letter code, appended to the price (e.g., 24.99 GBP, 29.99 EUR). No commas or symbols. See our step-by-step how-to for the operational steps.
The hreflang question
Google Shopping doesn't use hreflang directly in the feed — it uses the country and language attributes in the Merchant Center configuration. But if your landing pages serve multiple languages, hreflang on the site is critical for Google to match the right page to the right feed. Common pitfalls:
- French feed pointing to .com landing pages without French hreflang signals → Google may consider the landing page mismatched to the feed locale.
- UK feed pointing to .co.uk landing pages with no hreflang en-GB tag → less critical but still better practice.
- Multi-EU feeds (Belgium with French + Dutch, Switzerland with French + German + Italian) require careful hreflang setup on the landing pages.
Merchant Center Europe quirks
A few things that catch UK and EU merchants off guard:
Shipping country attribute
In Europe, shipping rules must be configured per country in your Merchant Center account (not per feed). If you ship to UK and Ireland, you configure shipping for both countries even from a single GBP feed pointed at the UK market.
Energy efficiency label
For certain product categories (TVs, washing machines, fridges, lamps), EU regulations require the energy_efficiency_class attribute. Failing to include it on regulated products causes disapprovals in EU markets.
Adult content rules
EU adult content rules are stricter than US. The adult attribute and content restrictions in Germany, France and Italy follow local regulations more closely. Conservative tagging is recommended.
Promotions feed
If you run promotions, the separate promotions feed has UK/EU-specific eligibility windows around Boxing Day, Black Friday and seasonal sales periods.
Title optimisation for European markets
The title formulas from our technical guide work in Europe, but with localisation considerations:
- UK: "colour" not "color", "trousers" not "pants", "trainers" not "sneakers". British English search behaviour matters.
- Germany: titles in German, with German compound nouns front-loaded. Brand names typically stay in English.
- France: titles in French, accents preserved (é, è, à). Strip accents only if your CMS doesn't handle UTF-8 cleanly.
- Italy: titles in Italian, similar accent considerations.
- Nordics: titles in local language preferred, English fallback acceptable in some categories.
How IronFeed handles multi-market European feeds
Managing 5+ country feeds with different currencies, VAT rates, languages and regulatory attributes manually is impossible at scale. IronFeed automates this through:
- Multi-market output: one master catalog generates N market-specific feeds with the correct currency, VAT-inclusive price, language and regional attribute set per country.
- Currency conversion rules: automatic price recalculation by market using configurable conversion logic (fixed rate, live rate, or per-market markup).
- Language-aware title templates: different title formulas and translations per market, applied automatically.
- Regulatory attribute injection: energy efficiency, age restrictions and other EU-specific attributes added based on category mapping rules.
Run a free feed audit on your current European feeds to see compliance gaps and optimisation opportunities. Browse platform features or check pricing to start a trial.
For the universal optimisation principles, read our Google Shopping feed optimization engineering guide. For implementation steps, see the step-by-step how-to.