The new feature aims to help advertisers sell more products by automatically updating prices and availability.
How it works. Microsoft Merchant Center will crawl advertisers’ websites, gathering price and availability data for the products offered. If a price change or availability issue is detected (e.g., if an item is out of stock), the product information will be updated in your ads.
Opting out. You can opt-out of auto-updates by navigating to the Automatic Updates tab under Settings in your Merchant Center account. Keep in mind that if your products are not up to date, your ads may be disapproved.
Why we care. It seems like Microsoft has been in the news a lot lately. In June alone they launched a new retail marketplace and announced Cash Back promotions for product ads. The new shopping features could be attractive to advertisers looking to expand their reach.