The Google Shopping condition attribute: new, refurbished and used
How the Google Shopping condition attribute works, the three accepted values, what each condition requires, and how to sell refurbished or used products compliantly.
The condition attribute tells Google whether a product is new, refurbished or used. It defaults to new, so if you sell anything second-hand or restored and don't say so, you're misrepresenting the product, which is a disapproval and account-suspension risk. Refurbished has specific requirements around restoration, warranty and pricing; used covers everything previously owned, including open-box.
The condition attribute at a glance
| Attribute | Accepted values | Default if omitted |
|---|---|---|
condition |
new, refurbished, used |
new |
Google treats condition as a trust attribute. A shopper clicking a Shopping result expects a brand-new item unless told otherwise: so the attribute exists to make sure they're told otherwise. Submitting the wrong condition (or omitting it on second-hand stock) is misrepresentation, one of the policy areas Google enforces hardest.
The three values and what each requires
new
Brand new, in original packaging, never owned. This is the default and needs no special handling: but the product must genuinely be new. An open-box return resealed and sold as new is a policy violation waiting for a complaint.
refurbished
The strictest of the three. To use refurbished compliantly, the product must be:
- Professionally restored to fully working condition: inspected, repaired where needed, cleaned.
- Sold with a warranty: Google expects refurbished goods to carry one.
- In original or equivalent packaging: "equivalent" is fine; a plain box is not a problem, a missing charger is.
- Priced below the equivalent new product. A refurbished item priced at or above the new price is a red flag Google checks for.
The landing page must clearly describe the item as refurbished. If the feed says refurbished and the page reads like a new-product page, that's a mismatch: the same feed-must-match-page rule that governs price and availability.
used
Everything previously owned or opened that doesn't meet the refurbished bar: second-hand goods, open-box returns, ex-display units, graded stock. The product must still work as intended and the listing must describe its actual state (cosmetic wear, missing accessories, grading) honestly.
Deep dive Certified refurbished, grading, and the identifier question
Two nuances trip up merchants moving into refurbished and used stock at scale:
- "Certified refurbished" is a claim, not a value. The feed value is simply
refurbished: there is no separate certified value. "Certified refurbished" and "manufacturer refurbished" are marketing terms you may use in the title and description only if they're true: certified generally means refurbished by the manufacturer or a manufacturer-authorised process. Claiming manufacturer certification for a third-party refurb is misrepresentation. Grading schemes (Grade A/B/C, "Excellent", "Good") are also fine in titles and descriptions, but every unit under one offer ID must match the grade described: you can't sell mixed grades under a single offer and price. - Identifiers still matter. A refurbished or used product keeps its original GTIN: submit it, along with
brand, exactly as for the new equivalent. The condition attribute is what separates your offer from new listings of the same catalogue entry; the GTIN is what connects it. The common mistake is stripping identifiers from second-hand stock "to be safe", which just orphans the products from catalogue matching and thins their reach. One thing to check per country: some categories restrict refurbished or used sales entirely (notably certain media and personal-care categories), and a handful of target countries don't support used goods in Shopping ads at all. Check the destination's policy before launching a used range into a new market.
At catalogue scale, the failure mode is structural: a returns pipeline feeds open-box stock back into the same offer IDs as new stock, so one product ID alternates between conditions week to week. Give refurbished and used stock their own offer IDs so condition, price and page stay consistent per offer.
Common condition disapprovals
| What Google sees | Likely cause |
|---|---|
| Misrepresentation flag on used stock | Condition omitted, so the offer defaulted to new |
| Refurbished item disapproved | Priced at/above new equivalent, or landing page doesn't state refurbished |
| Invalid value error | Feed contains values like open box, like new, grade A: only the three fixed values are accepted |
| Mismatch warnings | Feed says one condition, landing page describes another |
That third row is the most common at import time: platforms export whatever the merchant typed into a condition field, and Google rejects anything outside the fixed set. Map open-box and graded stock to used, describe the grade in the description, and keep the raw grade in product_type or a custom label if you need it for campaign structure.
How this works in /tools
Feed validation checks the condition column against the accepted values and flags free-text conditions before they reach Merchant Center, and enrichment writes any corrections to the supplemental layer: your source platform data is never modified. Condition consistency also feeds your Feed Health Score, so a returns import that quietly flips offers between conditions shows up as a score movement rather than a Diagnostics surprise. For the full attribute list, see the product data spec overview.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to submit condition if everything I sell is new?
Google assumes new when the attribute is absent, so a purely new-goods catalogue works without it. Submitting it explicitly is still good practice, it removes ambiguity, and some feed platforms require the column anyway.
Can I sell refurbished products on Google Shopping?
Yes. Set condition to refurbished, make sure the product is professionally restored to full working order, sold with a warranty, and priced below the equivalent new item. The landing page must describe it as refurbished too, the feed and page must agree.
What counts as used rather than refurbished?
Used is anything previously owned or opened that hasn't been professionally restored, second-hand goods, open-box returns, ex-display items. Refurbished specifically means restored to fully functional condition by a professional process and backed by a warranty.
Does a used product still need a GTIN?
Submit the original manufacturer GTIN where it exists, it helps Google match the product to its catalogue entry. Never invent one, and never use the new item's listing data to disguise the condition.