Shipping dimensions
Shipping dimensions are the length, width, height and weight of the parcel a product travels in, which carriers and channels use to work out delivery costs.
- Delivery dimensions
- Packed dimensions
- Parcel dimensions
What it means
Shipping dimensions describe the parcel, not the product: its size and weight once it is packed. Google asks for “the dimensions of the parcel”. In Google Merchant Center they help to work out the delivery cost when you use carrier-calculated delivery.1
Google’s delivery length, width and height take cm or inch, from 1 to 400 cm or 1 to 150 inches. They are all or nothing: “Include all dimension attributes if you include any of them.”1 Delivery weight takes lb, oz, g or kg, up to 2,000 lb or 1,000 kg.2
Shopify’s product file holds the packed size in three columns plus a unit column. Fill all four or leave all four blank, or the product is not imported.3
Think of it like this
Shipping dimensions are what the courier’s tape measure says about the box at the depot. Nobody there cares what is inside, only how big and heavy the parcel is.
For example
A supplier’s only size for a kettle is “35 x 25 x 15 cm (boxed)”. That is the box, so it goes in the delivery columns as 35, 25 and 15 cm. The kettle’s own product dimensions stay blank until someone measures the kettle.
Why it matters
Parcel sizes decide what you pay to deliver and what a shopper is charged. Leave out a delivery height while length and width are filled, and you break Google’s all or nothing rule. It is one of the minimum requirements Google enforces by disapproving the product.1
Not to be confused with
Shipping dimensions are not product dimensions. The box is bigger than the product inside it, and a supplier column headed Dimensions could be either, so find out which before you map it.
Sources
- Google Merchant Center Help. Delivery length [shipping_length], delivery width [shipping_width], delivery height [shipping_height].
- Google Merchant Center Help. Delivery weight [shipping_weight].
- Shopify Help Center. Using CSV files to import and export products.