Google adds member pricing data type to merchant listings

Google has made significant updates to its merchant listing structured data guidelines, introducing a new beta property for member pricing and providing detailed clarification for various pricing types. The announcement, made on February 13, 2025, comes as part of Google's effort to enhance how merchants can specify complex pricing structures through structured data.

The update introduces the validForMemberTier property, designed specifically for merchants who offer loyalty program pricing. This beta feature allows merchants to encode member-specific prices alongside regular pricing information in their product listings. The property works in conjunction with existing price specifications under the Offer object in JSON-LD format.

According to Google's official documentation, the new structured data implementation distinguishes between three distinct price categories: active prices, strikethrough prices, and member prices. Each category serves a specific purpose in the merchant listing ecosystem:

Active prices represent the current offering price and do not require additional property specifications. These prices form the baseline for product listings and can be encoded at either the offer level or within price specifications.

Strikethrough prices, marked with the priceType property set to StrikethroughPrice, indicate the original higher price during sales periods. These prices appear with a visual strikethrough to emphasize price reductions. For a transition period, Google continues to accept ListPrice as an alternative designation.

Member prices, the newest addition to the specification, utilize the validForMemberTier property to indicate special pricing available to loyalty program members. These prices cannot include a priceType property, maintaining clear separation between member and non-member pricing structures.

The technical implementation requires careful attention to property usage. Google's documentation emphasizes that priceType and validForMemberTier properties must not be used together within the same price specification. This restriction ensures clear differentiation between different pricing types in the structured data.

For merchants implementing the new features, the structured data must adhere to specific formatting requirements. Price specifications must include both the price value and currency information, following standardized formats such as ISO 4217 for currency codes.

The merchant listing structured data guidelines now provide comprehensive examples demonstrating proper implementation of these pricing structures. These examples include scenarios for basic price listings, sale pricing with strikethrough prices, and various member pricing configurations.

The standardization effort aligns with Google's broader initiative to improve product information accessibility across its shopping ecosystem. This update brings the structured data capabilities closer to the feature set available in Google Merchant Center, providing merchants with consistent tools across platforms.

Implementation of these new features requires merchants to update their existing structured data markup. The beta status of the member pricing feature indicates potential refinements may occur as Google gathers feedback from merchants and monitors implementation patterns.

The implementation of these features marks a significant step in Google's efforts to provide more granular pricing display options for merchants, particularly those operating loyalty programs or offering complex pricing structures.