You know how important it is to gain advantages and stand out among your competition. You may have already taken steps to improve the shopping experience and develop your team. But it’s also important to help your customers (and potential customers) find you and the products you sell.
Online search is the most popular way consumers look for a retailer or product.1 One online tool that could help you level the competitive playing field is Google Shopping. This tool is very popular with merchants. In fact, according to Merkle, ad spend has increased by 38% on Google Shopping compared to 2019.1
Most people know how to conduct an online search with Google (enter a search term, get a list of results). A more sophisticated online shopping tool, called Google Shopping, can help you potentially show up more frequently in search results, to customers who are more likely to be buyers than shoppers.
This tool could help you become more visible than your small business competitors, and even help you compete against big-box retailers. In this example, Google Shopping is selected rather than All.
When a consumer searches for a product (an Ashley ottoman in this example) using Google Shopping, they will see multiple (sponsored) results for that product from more than one store.
These results may include onlineonly stores, stores with websites or brick-and-mortar stores.
The consumer can then choose the search result/store to click for more information or to purchase
When a consumer checks the “Available nearby” filter, the search results will narrow to what is available in their local area. This can be good news for you, because the product from your store appears alongside products from larger retailers, including big-box stores. Think of this as an excellent equalizer. Having the ability to show up in these filtered searches could result in additional website traffic, store traffic and more sales for you.
Once you decide to use Google Shopping, you only need a few pieces of information to get started. The first step is to register on the Google Merchant Center.
Google offers step-by-step instructions for getting started and effectively and successfully using Google Shopping.
Here is an overview of the basic steps to get started. First, go to: merchants.google.com
- Create your Google Merchant Account (you’ll need a Gmail account, or create one).
- Enter your basic business information.
- Sign up for Google Shopping.
- Verify your URL with Google.
- Set up your product feed. Your feed is a list of your products for sale that you would like displayed on Google Shopping.
- Keep in mind that you must update product listings every 30 days to keep them from expiring.
Google Merchant Center is your central hub that helps you display all your Google Shopping information, including campaigns, products and reporting, in one place. Google has organized their hub into easy-to-use sections.
The Overview page lets you quickly see any announcements, as well as a summary of your programs (like Google Shopping campaigns) and how they are performing. You can click any of the data for more information.
The Products page helps you manage your product lists/feeds. You can also create and upload feeds right on this page. These feeds are how you tell Google what products you want to display/ feature and their details.
The Dashboard page provides a quick snapshot of overall campaign and product performance.
The Growth page offers ways to get the most out of Merchant Center. You can see a list of personalized Opportunities to improve your business.
Not only can small businesses like yours benefit from Google Shopping, but customers can benefit as well. The tool lets them search, browse and compare across their current favorite stores, and lets them potentially discover new stores too. This can save customers time and provide a more personalized shopping experience based on the product they want to buy and where they would like to buy it.
Customers can choose to find products online, for a fully digital experience, or find them nearby, for an in-person shopping experience. They can even purchase many products using their Google Assistant!
1https://www.storegrowers.com/google-shopping
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