Google’s Gift to You
Ecommerce partner opens up no-cost opportunities to rev up your store
Rifling through the Good News file for ecommerce merchants, one entry stands out as a legit reason to be intrigued. The mega e-tailer is offering free access to its product listings service that corresponds with user searches.
This rolled-out feature first appeared in late April 2020. Apparently the company is pleased with its results and has decided to make it semi-permanent—or as permanent as anything in the digital universe may be.
This is a boon for mobile marketers, especially, as it allows them to show off their inventory to customers in a hurry to buy. Website traffic from closed brick-and-mortar vendors who have jumped on board to recapture plunging revenues is promising. For its own purposes, Google reports a figure close to 400 million shoppers worldwide every single day.
How it works
Free listings will be boosted by product data feeds merchants upload to the Google Merchant Center. All retailers have had the ability to access the center since 2019, but this universal roll-out has been in the works for a few months. Tweaks to their already robust platform make it easier to enable organic product visibility in the areas of search results, including the all-important Image Search. A section titled “Popular Products” was just added to make that easier and more efficient.
Free listings on Google Shopping preceded this move by a couple of months, as the Silicon Valley company threw a bone to ecommerce sellers with a future goal of shaping at least part of their offerings around that group. Extending free listings makes it more likely that consumers will find brands and retailers to embrace, rather than having to hop on over to Google Shopping as an extra step.
And, needless to say, it still retains loyalty to and usage of a Google product. This is a net win.
Though Google Shopping—with its impressive array of advanced features and tools that narrow down search results—is better suited to big players, most merchants selling online tend to be small- to mid-sized. This is the target group for cost-free access to Google product listings.
The numbers look great for Google. Since adding free listings to their shopping platform, it has seen an average jump of 130 percent in impressions for ads and listings in the United States. Clicks sailed up to a 70 percent gain (compared to a control group), according to digital guru Tech Crunch.
Google is eager to help you join their ranks. Their merchant center has more information on product listings, both free and paid, and can guide you toward an increased exposure to your store and its benefits.