A couple of days ago it was announced by Google that Google Shopping will now be allowing business to showcase product listings for free. This was a move initially planned for a few month’s time, however the coronavirus pandemic has caused them to move this forward.
The ongoing competition with Amazon was also a major factor, as Amazon has slowly started eating away at Googles market share for product searches for quite some time. Google will be focused on having more products available to browse for the end consumer, and thus hope to take back some of that Amazon market share. It’s also likely some retailers seeing success with the free listings may increase their exposure with paid bidding.
According to Google this will be rolled out by the end of April in the United States, and in other countries by the end of the year. There will be no major changes to any of the paid listings. It’s likely marketers will have access to the data breaking down paid + free traffic.
Not yet got a merchant centre account?- Sign up for a merchant centre account - https://www.google.com/retail/solutions/merchant-center/
- Ensure you have a working product feed. This is quite a straightforward process if you’re using a modern shopping cart such as Shopify or Magento, as you will be able to use a plugin for integration.
- Once signed up for Google merchant centre, on the left-hand side navigate to Growth > manage programs > surfaces across Google > get started.
- You will have to go through the simple sign up process to get started.
Already have a merchant centre account + running Google Shopping ads?
If you already have a merchant centre account and are currently running shopping ads, it’s very likely that you won’t have to do much. To confirm, I would quickly check the surfaces across Google section as per step 3 above to confirm it is active.
Amore Digital is an ecommerce focused digital advertising consultancy. If you need help setting up the free google shopping listings, or email us directly:
hello@amoredigital.co.uk.
Official links:
https://www.blog.google/products/shopping/its-now-free-to-sell-on-google/
https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/9838672?hl=en
By Ted Parry
4 April 2020 
A couple of days ago it was announced by Google that Google Shopping will now be allowing business to showcase product listings for free. This was a move initially planned for a few month’s time, however the coronavirus pandemic has caused them to move this forward.
The ongoing competition with Amazon was also a major factor, as Amazon has slowly started eating away at Googles market share for product searches for quite some time. Google will be focused on having more products available to browse for the end consumer, and thus hope to take back some of that Amazon market share. It’s also likely some retailers seeing success with the free listings may increase their exposure with paid bidding.
According to Google this will be rolled out by the end of April in the United States, and in other countries by the end of the year. There will be no major changes to any of the paid listings. It’s likely marketers will have access to the data breaking down paid + free traffic.
Not yet got a merchant centre account?
Already have a merchant centre account + running Google Shopping ads?
If you already have a merchant centre account and are currently running shopping ads, it’s very likely that you won’t have to do much. To confirm, I would quickly check the surfaces across Google section as per step 3 above to confirm it is active.
Amore Digital is an ecommerce focused digital advertising consultancy. If you need help setting up the free google shopping listings, get in touch on our website or email us directly: hello@amoredigital.co.uk.
Official links:
https://www.blog.google/products/shopping/its-now-free-to-sell-on-google/
https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/9838672?hl=en