Case study · True North Fragrances
Fixing a Merchant Center suspension at the source
An independent Canadian shop selling hand-poured samples of designer fragrances lost its Google Shopping listings. We fixed what Google checks: the products, the product pages and the business information. Then we rebuilt the Shopify store so the traffic Google sends back actually buys.
A genuine product that could look like something else
A decant is a real fragrance poured from a full-size bottle into a smaller atomizer by the seller. Online, it carries a famous brand name and is often shown with the manufacturer’s bottle. Unless the shop states plainly what the customer receives, the listing can read as the brand’s own product, an official tester or a counterfeit.
The catalogue also repeated the store name across product SEO titles, and key buying information was hard to find.
Every product and size checked in Shopify
Fragrance house and scent name kept at the front, the format stated plainly, and repeated store branding removed from 278 SEO titles.
Each sample size is a real variant with its own price and availability. Product pages now say the sample is independently decanted from a genuine retail bottle, is not an official sample or tester, and does not include the retail bottle. About, FAQ, Contact and Shipping & Returns were rewritten so the business is easy to identify.
No borrowed barcodes
Copying the full-size bottle’s GTIN would have filled Merchant Center’s identifier fields and cleared some warnings. It would also have described a 5 ml sample as a sealed retail bottle, which is the misrepresentation problem in a different place.
The products stay classed as custom products with no GTIN or MPN. Slower to explain, but it is the version that holds up to a manual review.
Before and after
Same products. A store designed to make buying easier.
The compliance work made the catalogue honest. The redesign made it easy to buy from. These are the same pages before and after FifteenFold.
Homepage on a phone
Product page on a phone
Homepage on desktop
Product page on desktop
Evidence
What a shopper and a Google reviewer see
- The page says what it is. “Fragrance sample · Independently decanted in Canada” sits under the scent name.
- Every size shows its price. 2, 5, 10 and 30 ml, each a real Shopify variant.
- The disclosure sits next to the purchase. Not an official sample or tester, and the retail bottle is not included.
- The store and the feed agree. Titles, sizes and prices were corrected in Shopify itself, not patched in the feed.
- Products
- 294 reviewed
- Variants
- 1,126 checked
- SEO titles
- 278 cleaned
- Barcodes invented
- None
Merchant Center outcome · Client-confirmed reinstatement
The counterfeit-policy issue was cleared after review.
Following corrections to the product catalogue and the store, Google completed the requested review. Its notification confirmed that the counterfeit-product policy issue no longer appeared in the Merchant Center account. The retailer confirmed that the account was reinstated.
That is the outcome of this engagement, not a promise of approval for another retailer. Google remains responsible for future reviews, account status and individual product eligibility.
What we built
A shop built to sell the traffic Google sends back
A compliant catalogue only pays off if Shopping visitors buy. FifteenFold rebuilt the Shopify storefront around how people choose a sample: by house, by scent and by size.
- Collections with brand and gender navigation, Shopify filters, price ranges and 16 products a page instead of an endless grid.
- Product pages with a priced size grid, fragrance notes, shipping details and the decant notice.
- Quick View to pick a size and add to basket without leaving the collection.
- A basket drawer with quantity controls and progress towards free shipping.
- Phone-first navigation and layouts, built to supplied desktop and mobile mock-ups.
- Owner-editable pages in Shopify, so policies and copy are not locked in code.
If your account is suspended
Fix the store before you ask for a review
Misrepresentation reviews look at the whole shop, not just the feed. Request a review when the products, product pages and business information all tell the same honest story, not before.