Google connects large numbers of shoppers around the globe to merchants and products that may have been overlooked. Every hour. Every day.

36% of all product search results originate from the most-cited search engine.

Google is second in product search, behind Amazon. Amazon now has almost half the market share. Despite Amazon’s rise, Shopping ads and listings are still a great way to stand out. Google Shopping is available in ninety markets while Amazon recently surpassed eleven.

A reliable online store is essential for businesses that wish to reach consumers online. A website builder that offers advanced business features and a wide range of templates for online stores will make it easy for merchants to do this. A strong eCommerce strategy that highlights products throughout the buying process, including where most people will conduct initial product research, is a great way to grow an eCommerce business.

This guide will give you an overview of Google Shopping. It also contains step-by-step instructions to create a Google Merchant Center, set up campaigns and begin selling on Google Shopping.

Wix App Market allows you to sync and optimize your Google Shopping product feeds. Connect a Wix App with your online store to maximize your sales.

What is Google Shopping?

Google Shopping, the tech giant’s product search engine, allows consumers to search for, compare and even purchase products from thousands of online retailers.

Google Shopping Ads are part Google’s wider ad ecosystem, which includes search, display and video ads, as well as app ads. Google Shopping, like Google Search, includes both paid and unpaid product listings. This makes them an invaluable marketing and sales tool for all businesses.

Google Shopping’s product images carousels are most likely what you’ve seen. They appear at the top search results for terms such as “holiday gifts” and “sneakers or women”.

Google Shopping allows eCommerce businesses to list their products and send Google users to their online shop. If they are in the U.S., you can also sell directly from Google through the commission-free “Buy on Google”. In a moment, we’ll go into more detail about this program and others.

Google Shopping: Why merchants should sell on Google Shopping

 

Google Shopping will be a mix of all its previous iterations in 2021. It is a shopping search engine that allows consumers to compare and purchase products.

Google’s Shop on Google feature lets shoppers purchase items directly from merchants, without having to leave Google.

From 2012 to April 2020, nearly all products on Google Shopping were sponsored products. This means that businesses paid for them to be listed in the shopping engine.

Google, however, announced in April 2020 that it would again allow users to list their products for free. Google Shopping now offers both paid and unpaid product listings on all relevant Google platforms.

This is one of the best reasons to sell on Google Shopping.

Another reason is trust. Trust.

The Verge recently conducted a survey to determine which tech brands consumers trust most. Google scored higher than Apple and Amazon.

This is due to Google’s ubiquitous ubiquity in search. Google is the default search engine of many people and holds about 92% of the global search market.

It makes sense to sell on Google Shopping if 48 percent of people begin their product research using a search engine. If you have a Wix online shop, Google Shopping Ads can help to increase your omnichannel retail strategy and add an additional channel to your sales mix. Even better, you can sync your Google Shopping feed directly using the Wix Application Market in just minutes.

We provide a step by step guide to help you sell on Google Shopping. This includes creating a Google Merchant Center Account.

How to list products in Google Merchant Center (GMC).

Google Merchant Center (GMC), a Google product, allows eCommerce businesses to manage product inventory across Google Shopping Platforms and Properties.

GMC can be integrated with other Google products such as Google Ads and Google Search.

Vendors can upload datasheets to their GMC accounts and manage their product listings individually. This is what Google uses for Shopping ads and free listings in Google Shopping.

You must complete the following steps before you can create a GMC Account. (Note: Google has provided links to further instructions throughout).

1. You need at least one Google account.
2. Verify your website and business with Google My Business ( only applicable to businesses with a physical location) To claim your Google My Business profile or create it, you will need your physical address, contact number and tech support. After verifying your business, you have the option to customize your profile with photos, hours, and any other information. When someone searches for your business name (or “type”), it will appear in Google’s main search results.
3. Set up your Google Merchant Center account. Google guides you through the process. However, you will need to have two things: 1) an online store that can accept payments and offers returns; and 2) physical products (not service) in your store.
4. Verify your site. To show products in Google Shopping ads you must prove you own the website. Google gives detailed information about what this means and how you can do it. Once you have logged in to your GMC, follow the instructions to verify website authenticity. Before you proceed with this step, make sure you have an online store that is active. Wix makes it easy to launch your eCommerce store. It takes only ten steps to open an online store
5. Enter your business information. Add your country, business time zone and business name. Your Google product listing will display your business name. Google uses your business name for your Merchant Center Account number. You can opt in to Google Merchant emails or not and accept Google’s terms and conditions.
6. Create product information, including your free product listings, and add more detail business information. This is where you can add shipping, tax, website address, phone number, and product data. You can upload your product data to the GMC via product feeds or add individual products.
7. Use the Buy on Google option (optional): You can sell products directly through Google by purchasing on Google. This program is only available in the United States. To set it up, click on “Growth” from the left navigation and then “Manage Programmes”. Finally, click “Get Started” under the Buy on Google box. You must meet the following requirements to be eligible for this program:
8. All products are eligible for a 30-day return policy (from the date of delivery).
9. Google has a range of return policies that apply to all products. These include: no used products; no vehicle parts; no digital goods/subscriptions; no goods requiring activation in-store, and no products with ID/age requirements.
10. Connect to Google Ads – This is necessary if you wish to display paid product ads on Google Shopping. Connect your GMC to Google Ads. If you don’t have one, you will need to create one. Click on “Growth”, in the left navigation, and then click “Manage program”, then click “Get started” below the Shopping ads. Before you can connect your GMC with Google Ads, you will need to enter your business and product information. You will also need to read and agree to the GMC policies.
11. Create a test campaign. After your GMC account and Google Ads accounts have been linked, you will be able to create your first Google Ads shopping campaign. Sign in to your Google Ads account, and follow these steps:
12. Click “Campaigns” in the navigation bar to the left.
13. Click the “plus”, select “New” campaign and then select “Shopping”.
14. You will need to set up campaign preferences. This includes campaign name, country of sales, inventory filter (to indicate which products you wish to promote), daily budget and other details. This section will also allow you to specify the GMC that you would like to use for your campaign.
15. You can save and continue by clicking “save as” to create your first shopping ad.
16. Choose what kind of ad you want in your shopping ad group: You can choose a Product Shopping ad (recommended for new advertisers) which is your basic one-product-per-listing shopping ad. A Showcase Shopping Ad allows you to advertise multiple products in one ad.
17. You can create your first ad-group by entering the name of the group (e.g. “Mens Shoes”) and a bid amount. Click “Save.”
18. After your ad group has been created, you will arrive at the product groups pages. The default product groups will be labeled “all products”. This means that your campaign will promote all of the products you sell. You can modify the products that appear in your ads by creating product groups.

Tips to optimize Google Shopping Campaigns

But you’re not done. After you have set up your Google Shopping campaigns and turned them on you will need to maintain and optimize them.

Optimizing your product feed is the best way to optimize Google Shopping ads. Your ads (and all free listings) will perform better on Google if you have the right product data. For optimal Shopping Ad performance, it is important to have accurate and high-quality product data.

These are the things you can do to ensure a product feed that is optimized

1. All the data attributes required by Google’s product specification guidelines to be applicable to your products should be included.
2. After updating your product database, create your feed.
3. When you make changes to your website inventory, submit your GMC data. Google usually updates GMC information for products in a matter of minutes.
4. Enable automatic item updates. This prevents account suspension for pricing and availability mismatches. Google says this feature is best for a small percentage of your inventory. You can find more guidance here.
5. Check that the information on your Shopping ads matches your website. Google monitors this and will disapprove your ads if the pricing or availability of your products is not consistent.
6. Provide verifiable data on your website. Google will verify your website faster if you include price and availability information in the HTTP response. This will reduce traffic to your servers during verification. Google recommends structured data markup for listing price and availability.
7. Only display the final price on product pages. If you are using dynamic pricing, don’t show the final price until the page is fully loaded. To verify that the price displayed in your Shopping ads or free listings is correct, you can use Google’s URL inspection tool.

It is important to plan how you will optimize your Shopping campaigns within Google Ads. This includes creating an organized campaign structure and ad groups. This allows you to bid for different product categories at the campaign and ad group level. There are some products that are more popular than others so it is not necessary to bid the same amount for all products.

You can manage product bidding by grouping your products into different ad groups, and setting a unique bid per ad group. If you are selling shoes, you could create a shopping campaign called “Mens Shoes”, and then create ad groups to include Mens Sneakers (or Boots), Mens Dress Shoes, and so on.

Lastly, key performance indicators such as total sales, cost-per-conversion, and ROI should be monitored.

Google Ads offers a variety of bidding strategies to optimize how your ads are served. For example, the target cost per acquisition (CPA), automatically adjusts bid amounts based upon a target CPA. You should familiarize yourself with all the bidding strategies available so that you can choose the one that best suits your goals.

Google Shopping is a reliable and trusted way to reach consumers all over the world

Google Shopping is still a great way to reach customers online, particularly when you consider reach. Google recently reported that retail searches increased 200 percent in Q4 2020, compared to the previous year.

Many customers will be able to pick up their orders in person this year after they start their online shopping journey on Google. This is due to the adoption of omnichannel retail fulfillment options such as buy online, pick up in-store (BOPIS). By February 2020, BOPIS adoption increased 28 percent over the previous year.

Wix eCommerce allows you to reach customers in person, online, via mobile and in online marketplaces. Integrating your Google Shopping account with your Wix store will give you a complete view of your customers, allowing you to sell more effectively.

source https://www.wix.com/blog/ecommerce/2021/11/google-shopping