Ambiguous GTIN code

tigercreekgifts · Posts: 6293

Sheila, I know google controls how the links appear but since this did not start happening until after the marketplace fees were implented it made me wonder if ecrater told goodle to show the items with their marketplace links first, so that ecrater can have more chances to make fees because I know some of that money goes to google to keep our items listed in GS but you know ecrater has got to be taking a small cut of it, so they can get paid too for running ecrater. And I understand that, because an online business is not free by any means, but I wish someone would be more clear about it and not try to slip in stuff like this under the radar. But no one at ecrater mentioned that links to ecrater.com would now be taking superiority over links to our stores and they had to know this, even if they didn't ask google to do it, ecrater has to have noticed a sudden huge increase in marketplace based sales and checked their analytics to find out why.

It may seem like google like is doing it on purpose so there will be more items sold from GS, which means google profits too, and maybe google is doing this but sales that originate from ecrater.com where the buyer never went to any other search engine or site and came directly to ecrater.com to look around, those sales also incur the 2.9% fee and in that instance google is not involved at all, so obviously this seems to be a win-win situation for both google and ecrater.

Now, Most of the time when I search for my items I am one of only 1-9 results appearing In GS because many of my items are handmade, OOAK, limited edition, or hard to find so not many other people are selling the same things and normally the other results for my items in GS are things have nothing to do with my item. Like If I search for (just an example) handmade wood dairy cow box, my item shows first in GS because (last I checked) I was the only one that has a handmade wooden cow box. Out of the other results displayed (let's say there are 8 more) 2 would be for a wooden sign with a cow on it (okay I understand, very similar items) 2 would be for diary farm equipment that milks cows electronically (still understand, not a wooden item but it is for dairy cows) and the other 4 results are for car parts or something completely unrelated.

So anyway, usually my items are hard to find or one of a kind so google only displays minimal results and they are all marketplace links. For the items I have that are common where there is on occasion 2-7 pages of results, I never go back further than the 3rd page so if links to our stores are buried deep, mine must be on the last page because normally in that instance my item is in the 3rd-7th spot on the first page of GS and it links to ecrater.

But used to be all GS listings lead to my store directly and organic had a mix of links leading to my store and some that pointed to the marketplace. When the marketplace fees were introduced, I slowly watched those store direct links fade and recently, checking items that I know for a fact used to display results that lead directly to my store, now say 'Item name here blah blah on ecrater.com' and point to the markerplace and my store direct links are back on page 2, 3 or 4 in organic. But with GS if only 4 results show when I search for my item and my result is a marketplace link, then obviously GS is not still displaying my store direct links several pages back because there was only 4 total results in GS.

To experiment I just searched for a few items of mine that are more common in GS. I got 7 pages of results for one item, and 5 pages for the other item. Just checked all pages on both of the items I searched for. Nowhere in those further back pages is a link to my store, yet on page 1 in the 3rd spot is a link to my item in the marketplace. I have heard from other sellers who are still seeing their store direct links in organic and in GS but they said they have noticed the amounts of direct links fading tremendously lately.

MoonwishesStore · moderator Posts: 17389

While my two orders this month have been marketplace 2.9 orders, generally I have a mixture including 'store Google' 'store Yahoo' 'store Bing'. I don't think what you say is happening, Tiger, really is, it just feels that way.

cosmicray · Posts: 7286

tigercreekgifts · Posts: 6293

dccollectibles · Posts: 2761

This thread has somewhat inspired me to give the attributes another look. Not because Google said so, but because there may be some gold we can wring out of them there hills yet.

And look what I found: A Blast From The Past

Now granted a lot has changed and many of these are no longer in use, but there's some good discussion on those items that may still be valid. Is the eCrater attribute list pop-up current and complete, or is there link to a complete list of things we can fudge with? I mean besides the GS list (of which much is not eCrater supported).

Also noticed you can now search for more than one brand at a time at GS. What format was decided would be the correct way of posting that? Would it be the comma delimited method, or did the slash win out? (Example: "this, that" or "this / that") Or does the slash only work for colors?

carolinabluelady · Posts: 329

I now have no errors on the bookstore's google feed. But, I still don't know what "Ambiguous GTIN code" means. eCrater thought maybe it was due to: 'GTIN is not registered as it is listed' We were going to see what happened after changing all to the 13 digit code.

I went through every book in my store (around 200) and checked the isbns and changed all that had an isbn to the 13 digit one. I also added the attributes - author, publisher, edition, pages and binding attributes even though they are no longer used or needed (who knows). They are still available in eCrater. I also made sure I was using the isbn for the edition I was selling. I used the following sources (recommended by Google) to check the isbn's: http://isbndb.com/ and http://www.gs1us.org/resources/tools/check-digit-calculator

There were a few books that I could not find in the database even though it was showing in the book or on the dust jacket. I checked Abe's Books.

I finished Thursday and today there are no more errors. The other thing I am doing is putting the edition year in my title unless the title is already too long. Example: Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution by Simon Schama HB 1989 Edition.

BTW, there should be no hypens or spaces used in the isbn codes. I still want to know what "Ambiguous GTIN code" means but I probably won't hear from eCrater until Monday.

carolinabluelady · Posts: 329

This was the response from eCrater:
Nothing on our side would have changed this. It most likely was the changes that
you made. It would appear that Google allows the 10 digit and does not
disapprove the products, while still sending the warning for the Ambiguous GTIN

It appears that google will accept the 10 digit but they really want the 13 digit ISBN. So if you just use the 10 digit, they will tack on a warning for you. It is so easy to get the 13 digit ISBN, I suggest that people do it. Who knows what will happen in a year or two - google could decide not to accept the 10 digit anymore period.

tigercreekgifts · Posts: 6293

That's odd, ecrater told me to only use the 10 digit isbn, they told me what they told you but in reverse. Said the 13 digit isbn was the one causing the warnings even though it was actually approved. I was eventually instructed to remove the isbn all together for the books I have. Maybe they were just recently told this by google and what I received was old information however, they said they contacted google and asked them for me so you would think google would have given them the same info for me that they relayed to ecrater for you.

Why are sellers getting different information? Just like it's weird how some sellers can list a used purse and use identifier_exists in place of upc and add the gender, size and age group atrributes and constantly remain disapproved when other sellers are saying they have never provided gender, size, age group or upc and have never been disapproved for it. So google is accepting the identifier attribute for sellers that don't fill in any other details but those who use identifier and do provide the other required attributes are still being disapproved. Doesn't make sense. Seems like google lets some people slide by while others are constantly asked to provide a upc anyway even though they filled in all other required attributes in place of upc.

carolinabluelady · Posts: 329

That is strange about the isbn.
I also found this in the google product feed specification

[quote]ISBN (for books): 10 or 13-digit number like 1455582344 or 978-1455582341. If you have both, only include the 13-digit number. ISBN-10 are deprecated and should be converted to ISBN-13.

Here is the link: https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/188494?hl=en

To tell you the truth, I don't know that ecrater went back to google and actually asked. Sometimes, I think that they (google) are just messing with us. One other thing that was sort of weird. I had a book that had the isbn (10 digit) on the book title page. But when I went to check, it wasn't showing at all in that 1 site look-up. I also could not locate the book in amazon. I did find the book in abe's. Anyhow, I calculated the 13 digit isbn and put it in the attributes. It was given an error after the feed was submitted saying it was an invalid isbn. I wrote to ecrater "The isbn in the book is 0668032753. This isbn is on the copyright/publication info page in the book. I can take a pic if needed. Converting the 10 digit isbn to the 13 number using GS1 (per Google's suggestion), the number is 9780668032759"

The error was gone after the next feed. Plus the other errors started going away from about 155 down to 91 for that ambiguous GTIN crap. Google doesn't physically look at the feeds - their little bots screen the feeds and they don't check to see if the computer screening is correct.

The other thing is that books have different isbn's based on their publication date, publisher and whether hardbound or paperback, so you have to make sure you are using the correct isbn for your publication. Amazon isn't always right.[/quote]

carolinabluelady · Posts: 329

Oh, I was going to say about the purse - perhaps whoever was listing without any of the 'required' attributes for clothing - maybe they were using a different category (collectible or vintage) and therefore it was missed. For a used or vintage purse, you can use identifier_exists = false for the upc if you don't have the upc. You still need to have the gender, age-group and color. It can get so confusing...........

cosmicray · Posts: 7286

carolinabluelady · Posts: 329

they should be able to change them since there is a system that figures out what the last digit is going to be. All the 13 digit code is the 10 digit code plus 978 in front of it and then dropping the last digit of the 10 digit code and coming up with the check code. A system can figure the last digit or check digit for you - http://www.gs1us.org/resources/tools/check-digit-calculator Supposedly this check digit validates the rest of the numbers.
Plus if they can tell you that the number is wrong, well that must mean they know what the right number is. Rolling Eyes

I've read that the reason for the 13 digit number is because they were running out of numbers - that does make sense to me.

What I wish google would do is just tell us they want the 13 digit code and here is the program that can come up with the code if you only have the 10 digit. I don't mind giving the information that they want; I just don't like having to try and figure out what it is that they want.