Google Shopping Condition Attribute: Requirements, Values & Best Practices

What is the condition attribute?

The condition attribute declares the physical state of your product: whether it is brand new (new), previously owned (used), or professionally restored (refurbished). It is a required attribute for used and refurbished products, a consumer protection signal, and a search query matching factor that determines whether your product is eligible to show for condition-specific searches.

While it might seem like a simple three-value field, condition carries significant policy and commercial weight. Misrepresenting condition is one of the cleaner routes to account-level policy violations in Google Shopping. Conversely, correctly declaring refurbished or used unlocks a distinct market segment — the growing base of value-conscious shoppers who actively search for second-hand and refurbished goods — while keeping your listings fully compliant and trustworthy.

Technical specifications

Where it displays

• Shopping Ads — For used and refurbished products, Google typically displays a condition label (“Used”, “Refurbished”) in the Shopping ad card. This label helps shoppers self-select — those looking for new-only products won’t click through, reducing irrelevant clicks and improving conversion rate for condition-appropriate traffic. New products don’t typically show a condition label (new is assumed as baseline).

• Free Product Listings — The Shopping tab includes a “Condition” filter panel where shoppers can filter results by New, Used, or Refurbished. Products with the correct condition attribute appear in the appropriate filtered view. Products without the attribute (or with incorrect condition) may not appear in condition-filtered results, missing highly targeted shoppers.

• Condition-specific search queries — Google uses the condition attribute to match products to search queries that explicitly include condition modifiers: “used MacBook Pro”, “certified refurbished iPhone”, “second hand DSLR camera”. These are high-intent, conversion-ready queries from shoppers who know exactly what condition they want. Correct condition declaration is the entry ticket to this traffic.

• Dynamic Remarketing — Product condition is used in audience segmentation. Users who engaged with refurbished products are retargeted with refurbished products. This condition-awareness in remarketing prevents the awkward scenario of showing a “new” product ad to a user who specifically browsed the refurbished category.

Rules

• Only three values accepted — new, used, refurbished, in lowercase. “Open box”, “pre-owned”, “restored”, “like new”, “grade A” — these are not accepted values. Map all internal condition classifications to one of the three.

• Must accurately reflect physical product condition — Misrepresenting condition (especially submitting new for a used/refurbished product) is a policy violation subject to product disapproval and account suspension.

• Condition must be verifiable from landing page — Google’s crawler checks that the landing page accurately describes the product’s condition. If the page says “refurbished” and the feed says “new”, a mismatch is flagged.

• Required for used and refurbished — Omitting the attribute for a non-new product results in Google assuming new, which is a de-facto misrepresentation if the product is actually used or refurbished.

• Refurbished ≠ used — Use refurbished only if the product has genuinely been professionally inspected, tested, and restored. Using refurbished for items that have merely been opened and returned (without professional process) is also misrepresentation.

Best practices

Condition classification guide

Optimizing refurbished listings

For refurbished products, the condition attribute alone is not enough to maximise conversion — the listing must build trust through additional signals:

• Include condition grade in the title (e.g., “Grade A”, “Excellent Condition”, “Like New”) — this is factual supplementary information, not a value to use in the condition attribute itself

• Describe the refurbishment process in the product description (“Professionally tested, battery replaced, scratch-free screen”)

• Mention warranty coverage explicitly in product highlights

• Use high-quality product images that honestly represent the actual item’s condition

Title strategies by condition

Include condition context in the product title for used and refurbished items — it pre-qualifies traffic and improves CTR from condition-seeking shoppers:

• new: “Sony WH-1000XM5 Wireless Headphones — Black” (no condition in title needed)

• refurbished: “Sony WH-1000XM5 Wireless Headphones — Certified Refurbished — Grade A”

• used: “Sony WH-1000XM5 Wireless Headphones — Pre-Owned — Good Condition”

Impact on performance

• Search query matching and impression share — Products with condition=refurbished or condition=used appear for condition-specific search queries that new products are excluded from. These queries have extremely high purchase intent — a user searching “refurbished MacBook Pro 14” has already made the new vs. refurbished decision and is ready to buy. Missing this traffic because condition is unset or wrong is a significant lost revenue opportunity.

• CTR from qualified traffic — When the condition label appears in the Shopping ad card, shoppers who specifically want that condition are more likely to click. Conversely, shoppers who want “new only” self-filter before clicking — reducing irrelevant clicks and improving overall campaign CTR and conversion rate.

• Policy violation risk — Condition misrepresentation is one of Google’s cleaner trip wires for account-level action. A single product disapproval for condition misrepresentation is a warning; patterns of misrepresentation across multiple products can escalate to account suspension. The downside risk of misrepresenting condition is asymmetric and severe.

• Filter panel visibility — In free listings, the condition filter is widely used by refurbished/used product seekers. Products without correct condition attribute are invisible to this highly motivated filter-using segment.

Common mistakes

• Omitting the condition attribute for used and refurbished products — Google defaults to “new”, creating de-facto misrepresentation

• Submitting condition=new for open-box, display model, or customer-returned items

• Using condition=refurbished for items that were merely cleaned or repackaged without professional inspection and testing

• Using non-standard values like “open-box”, “like-new”, “grade-a”, or “pre-owned” — these are not accepted and cause feed errors

• Putting condition-related text in the title (good) but not setting the condition attribute (bad) — the attribute is what powers filter panel inclusion and query matching

• Not updating condition when product inventory mix changes (e.g., adding refurbished products to a previously all-new catalog without updating condition attributes)

Pro tips

• Map all internal condition grades to the three accepted values in your feed pipeline — If your inventory system uses grades like A, B, C, or terminology like “Open Box”, “Certified Pre-Owned”, “Like New”, create a standardized mapping table to one of the three Google-accepted values. This mapping belongs in your feed generation logic, not in manual per-product edits. A clear mapping prevents inconsistencies at scale.

• Apply for Google’s Certified Refurbished program if you qualify — For refurbished electronics merchants who meet Google’s quality standards (professional testing process, minimum warranty, return policy), the Certified Refurbished badge is a significant trust signal that increases CTR vs. uncertified refurbished competitors. Check eligibility in Merchant Center under Programs.

• Use custom labels to segment used/refurbished products in campaigns — Apply a custom label (e.g., custom_label_0=refurbished) to all refurbished products, enabling campaign-level targeting, bidding adjustments, and performance reporting by condition. Refurbished products often have different margin profiles and conversion rates than new — they deserve separate bidding strategies.

• Monitor landing page condition language for consistency — If your website’s product descriptions use terms like “restored”, “reconditioned”, or “overhauled” for refurbished items, ensure these terms are understood by Google’s crawler as equivalent to refurbished — add Schema.org OfferItemCondition markup using the correct schema.org/RefurbishedCondition value to make the mapping unambiguous.