Tag: Google shopping

Bram Stoker Books: Google Shopping Results MIA The Day After The Doodle

On Thursday, Google ran a doodle on its homepage celebrating Bram Stoker’s 165th birthday. If you clicked on the doodle, it took you to search results for the query “Bram Stoker Books”.

We analyzed the search results page a bit here. We talked about how Google was using the doodle to showcase its Knowledge Graph (and particularly its Knowledge Graph Carousel), as well as Google Shopping and Google Books.

I notice today that the search results page for the query no longer displays Google Shopping results.

Just an observation.

I wonder how much having a Google Doodle that points to these prominent ads helps with clicks.

November 9, 2012
Google Talks Holiday Shopping Trends Businesses Need To Be Aware Of
Consumers intend to spend more on holiday shopping this year than they did last year, according to new research from Google.

Do you expect to see better holiday sales than last year? Let us know in the comments.

“We expect this to be the first Nonline shopping season,” a Google spokesperson tells WebProNews. “Meaning that the line between offline and online shopping has truly become blurred for users. They don’t see a line between their online and offline experiences, and neither do smart retailers.”

To perform its study, Google commissioned Ipsos OTX, and independent market research firm. Interviews were conducted via online survey from 8/29 – 8/27, with a total sample of 1,500 consumers.

“Not only is this the first Nonline holiday season, but it’s an important one for retailers as consumers prepare to spend more money — and spend more time making sure they get the most value for every dollar spent,” says Google Retail Industry Director, Todd Pollak. “Our research released today with Ipsos shows that on average, shoppers plan to spend $900 on holiday shopping this year, up slightly from an average of $854 last year. Along with this bump in spending, we’re seeing an increase in research before purchasing by shoppers who are more judicious about their purchases- 46% plan to spend more time shopping around for gifts this year.”

“We found that 80% of shoppers will research online before making a purchase this season, and they switch devices to suit their needs,” he adds. “For example, 51% of shoppers will research online and then visit the store to purchase, while 17% will visit a store first and then purchase online. Another 32% will research online, visit store to view a product, then return online to purchase. In short, the shopper’s journey looks less like a funnel and more like a flight map, and the lines between online and offline shopping experiences are blurring.”

According to the company’s research, consumers are most excited about purchasing clothes, TVs, laptops and tablets (namely, iPads, though tablets in general aren’t too far behind), though they intend to shop across all major retail categories, of course. 83% intend to purchase apparel, 64% intend to purchase toys, 57% intend to purchase electronics, 56% intend to purchase watches & jewelry, 49% intend to purchase cosmetics/beauty products, and 35% intend to purchase sporting goods.

Here’s what tablet and e-reader purchase intent looks like:

Interestingly, latptop intent is still greater than tablet intent (though not by much).

Google says its key takeaways from the study are:
- Capture Consumer Demand: 54% of consumers will start holiday shopping before Black Friday
- Make Sure Your Brand is Top of Mind: 46% of consumers plan to spend more time shopping around for gifts this year because of the economy
- Open Attribution Window: While consumers are researching early, 31% plan to do the majority of their holiday shopping in early/mid December
- Capture undecided holiday shoppers with search: 37% of consumers say search is their go-to source for gift ideas, and 51% plan to research online but buy in-store
- Implement full coverage for mobile and tablet: 4 in 5 mobile/tablet owners will use their device for holiday shopping, and mobile users continue searching after Christmas
We had a discussion with Director of Product Management for Google Shopping, Vineet Buch, who talked about how people are using their mobile devices in physical stores more and more. Depending on the kind of store or product, he says, people rely on humans for expertise and information, but in these types of scenarios, mobile apps can give a lot more info about a product than a human. He gave the examples of shopping for a washing machine or a microwave.

In cases where customers are more likely to make a taste-based purchase, Buch says mobile apps can empower the sales clerks to provide higher quality services. As far as straight information goes, however, we can probably expect consumers to turn to their mobile devices in-store before turning to sales clerks in increasing numbers.

According to Google’s findings, 85% of people shop for a gift on one device and then make their purchase on another. To do so, Google says, 45% will leave an item in the virtual shopping cart, 45% will send themselves an email or link, and 32% will conduct a new search on a new device.

“Savvy retailers are stimulating demand on one device and completing a sale on another,” says Pollak. “Shopping searches spike on mobile devices on days when people are on the go – out at a Thanksgiving dinner or hunting bargains at the mall. The biggest days for holiday shopping searches on mobile devices last year were Thanksgiving, Black Friday, the day after Christmas, and the weekends in December.”

According to Google, 62% of shoppers used a smartphone in a store to help with shopping research last year, indicating that retailers should aim to inform in-store purchase decisions with mobile apps or sites that are optimized for mobile.

Buch says that, as far as online goes, video is becoming increasingly powerful in many categories, as far as discovery. For reviews, he says, videos are better than words, because you can see the angles of products, how the move, etc.

“The user is becoming better informed and smarter,” he says, adding that this is an opportunity for those retailers who can better connect with users.

Mobile, he says, is another big opportunity, not just because you can drive conversions, but so many people come to retailers through mobile. The key is not to have a disconnect between your mobile experience and your desktop web experience as a retailer. Consumers should get a familiar experience no matter what screen they’re on.

“Mobile is kind of like the early days of the desktop Internet in some sense,” Buch says. “Tons of traffic, relatively easy to understand but not so may people savvy enough to leverage it properly.”

Users, he says, are demanding reliability and performance, and that needs to be reflected no matter what screen they’re using to access your site.

“The same way Google tries to have a seamless experience, merchants who are able to make that happen will do much better than those who have a disconnect,” he says.

Price has historically been a major driver of purchases online, he says, but having faith in the experience is becoming really important as well, he says, noting that stores with Google’s Trusted Stores badge get mich higher clickthroughs than stores without.

Much has been made about the importance of social to shopping, and Buch shared some thoughts on that as well. “People have gone back and forth,” he says. “People were putting products into news feeds or their Google+ feeds…that’s not the way social shopping is panning out.”

“It’s not so much about your personal friends, as opinions you trust,” he says. “Even if they’re not personal acquaintances of yours.”

In other words, you don’t necessarily need your actual friends on Google+ to gain social shopping value from the Google+ community. If you Circle people whose opinions matter to you, it’s possible that these opinions will come out as needed. Google, of course, is already adding Google+ associations to search results, and continues to find new integrations of these social connections all the time.

“It used to be that shoppers and merchants formed connections offline – a salesperson could spark a conversation with a shopper in the store,” says Pollak. “Now these connections are happening both online and offline. With YouTube and social networks, people are sharing their opinion on products not just with a group of friends, but with millions of people. Retailers are advertising against terms like ‘reviews’ and ‘haul videos’ to promote their message. And for good reason – we found that 13% of shoppers plan to watch online videos to help with shopping research, and 48% will use tablets to read product reviews before purchasing.”

Is your business ready for the mad holiday season rush? How important is the mobile shopping experience to your customers? Share your thoughts in the comments.
October 23, 2012
Google Shopping And Its Impact On Online Retailers

Earlier this month, Google announced the official date that all Google Shopping results in the U.S. would come from merchants who are Product Listing Ads advertisers. That date was October 17 – Wednesday.

Is the new Google Shopping an improvement for sellers? For consumers? Let us know what you think.

“We will be ranking these results based on relevance, with bidding as an additional factor,” Google reminded us. “The ranking of natural search results on Google.com will not change.”

We had a conversation about the transition with Michael Griffin, founder of Adlucent, which exclusively managed Amazon’s paid search until Amazon took it in-house in 2009. It currently powers paid search and shopping analytics for over 130 other retail brands, and has been managing Google Product Listing Ads for clients. The company, in fact, teamed with Google on a case study about Product Listing Ads.

“The same retailers that thrive in paid search today will have the highest chance of being successful with PLAs,” Griffin tells WebProNews. “Since the bids a retailer can afford are dependent primarily on a retailer’s ability to convert buyers (conversion rate) and maximize cart value (average order values), the best retailers will continue to dominate. Important to note, we are in a period where competition is low and CPCs are somewhat depressed. Right now, PLA CPCs are about 20% lower than paid search CPCs. Eventually, we expect CPCs to be 15-20% higher than paid search CPCs. Retailers moving quickly are being rewarded with the opportunity to test and gain market share at a lower cost.”

“Additionally, PLAs can be complicated to setup and require some technology sophistication on the part of the retailer,” he adds. “Besides setting up feeds and keeping the feeds updated in real-time, retailers must understand how to use consumer demand signals to optimize their feeds and bids. Most retailers will submit feeds and let Google do the optimization. These retailers are missing out on an opportunity to reach the right audience to get the highest return on ad spend. The smartest retailers will continuously optimize their product feed and unique product data, pro-actively manage their bids, and also leverage search query data to determine on-going refinements to investment.”

Google has done some things to simplify the product listing ad process. Here’s a video Google put out about the creation process in July:

“Retailers in commoditized categories will struggle the most as CPCs increase,” says Griffin. “Retailers with low conversion rates and low average order value will eventually be pushed out. Additionally, smaller retailers with low IT resources and/or agency support will struggle. Not only will it be harder for them to produce the right feeds, but it will be difficult for them to optimize them in real-time.”

When asked whether retailer size matters, he says, “I think conversion rate, average order value, technology aptitude, lifetime value, and retailer margins matter. Large retailers tend to be good in all of these areas, but there are exceptions. The winners will excel in all of these areas.”

One may wonder if Google will cannibalize its own paid search business in the rush to product listing ads. Griffin also shared some thoughts on that.

“In early studies, before the transition, it did not appear that PLAs were cannibalistic,” he says. “However, as Google places them in more prominent positions on the page, they will cannibalize some paid search traffic. Google is optimizing the page to have the highest RPS (revenue per search) and will rearrange the page in a way that drives a higher RPS.”

“RPS is determined by CTR of the ads on the page and the CPCs of these ads,” he explains. “PLAs currently have a higher CTR than traditional text ads. As CPCs increase, as predicted, Google will place PLAs in even more prominent positions. I do not believe Google is worrying as much about cannibalization as they are about continuing their efforts to constantly improve RPS.”

So what can consumers expect to see on both Google’s main search page and on Google Shopping?

“In the short term, I believe we’ll see a continued rise in prominence of PLAs on Google’s main search pages for commercial searches,” Griffin says. “They will continue to take over more valuable real estate as click-through rate and CPCs increase.”

“Regarding Google Shopping, Google’s intention is to become the default destination for online shoppers,” he says. “As such, we can expect that they will continue to invest in augmenting shopping pages with more information that customers find valuable. I think it’s reasonable to expect them to begin aggregating and showing product ratings and reviews, linking to product videos, augmenting descriptions, providing product recommendations, etc. If they want to be the default destination for online shoppers, they need to provide the richness of the experience that retailers are providing today.”

This whole thing sets up an interesting strategy in Google’s competition with Amazon.

“Both Amazon and Google want to be the default destination for online shoppers,” he says, pointing to this snippet of a recent New York Times article:

“In 2009, nearly a quarter of shoppers started research for an online purchase on a search engine like Google and 18 percent started on Amazon, according to a Forrester Research study. By last year, almost a third started on Amazon and just 13 percent on a search engine. Product searches on Amazon have grown 73 percent over the last year while searches on Google Shopping have been flat, according to comScore.”

Those are interesting numbers indeed. We talked about them in the articles Amazon Takes Competition With Google Up A Notch and Amazon Is Taking Searches Away From Google.

Even Google found that particular passage from the New York Times noteworthy, as Google D.C. guy Adam Kovacevich tweeted it:

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Adam Kovacevich
@adamkovac

NYT: 1/3rd of (lucrative) shopping searches start on Amazon, vs. only 13% on general search engines http://t.co/sDV6LYfR

Reply · Retweet · Favorite
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“The changes in Google Shopping put Amazon directly in competition with Google over the attention of online consumers,” Griffin tells us. “Today Amazon monetizes searches through product sales, marketplace sales, Amazon MediaGroup and Amazon Product Ads. We can expect that Amazon will continue to invest in areas where they can link more consumers to more products and monetize related advertising.”

“Conversely, we can expect that Google will continue to invest in areas where they can further monetize searches outside of the existing PLA, display, and text-based search offerings,” he adds. “Google will need to compete on the quality of the entire shopping experience from search to delivery so we should expect to see them continue growing programs like Google Trusted Stores and Google Wallet.”

I’d wager that Google Offers will be an important product for Google in this area as well.

“Ultimately, this competition will be good for online customers as both companies will compete to make a richer experience for online customers,” says Griffin.

Earlier this month, Google launched the available of product level bidding to Product Listing Ads, so merchants can use it during the holiday season. This lets advertisers optimize bids for individual products and easily create product targets using the product ID in the Merchant Center feed to manage bids at the product level. More on this in Google’s help center.

What are your early impressions of the new Google Shopping? Share your thoughts in the comments.

October 22, 2012
Google Shopping Gives Retailers New Promotions

Google announced today that it’s rolling out the ability for retailers in Google Shopping to add promotion to their product listings. This, Google says, will make the listings stand out more.

As you may know, Google Shopping now consists of all paid inclusion results. In other words, you have to be an advertiser using Google’s Product Listing Ads to be listed. Wednesday was the official day that this transition was to be complete in the U.S.

Advertisers using these new promotions can distribute them on other Google properties, such as Google Maps for Android, or the Google Offers App.

“In a few simple steps retailers can create a promotions list, map it to the right products in Google Shopping and upload to Google Merchant Center,” Google says in a post on its Commerce Blog. “Our system supports user specific redemption codes and associated reporting, enabling retailers to measure the performance of each promotion.”

“This is one of the many steps we’re taking to provide traffic, technology and tools to help retailers grow their business,” the company adds.

Google says it will expand the program to include more retailers in the coming months. So far, over 25 big name retailers are using the promotions.

October 18, 2012
Google Shopping Transition To Be Complete Oct. 17

We knew it was coming in October, but Google officially announced today that starting October 17, Google Shopping results in the U.S. will start coming only from merchants who are Product Listing Ads advertisers.

“We will be ranking these results based on relevance, with bidding as an additional factor,” the company reiterates. “The ranking of natural search results on Google.com will not change.”

Google also announced the availability of product level bidding for product listing ads.

“You can now improve your Product Listing Ad performance by setting your cost per click bid at the item level,” says Sameer Samat, Vice President of Product Management, Google Shopping. “This functionality should help you meet your volume and profit targets at the product level.”

Advertisers/merchants can also create product targets using the product ID in their Merchant Center feed to manage bids at the product level.

Google is encouraging merchants to get set up in time for holiday advertising.

For more discussion on the positives and negatives of Google’s paid inclusion Google Shopping model, read this.

October 2, 2012
Google Adds Catalogs To Google Shopping

Google has launched Google Catalogs on the web, after over a year of having it available only as an app for tablets. It was first launched for the iPad in August of last year, until an Android version was launched in November.

The web version is accessible via Google Shopping at google.com/shopping/catalogs.

“From here, you can browse our editor’s weekly picks and see what’s new in the ‘Latest catalogs’ section,” explains Abigail Holtz, Business Product Manager on Google Shopping. “Click ‘Brands’ to view an alphabetical list of catalogs, or select ‘Categories’ to browse over 25 catalog categories, including Women’s Fashion & Apparel, Home, Kids & Baby, Outdoor Adventure, Toys, and many more.”

“Once you find a catalog you like, click on the issue to open the catalog viewer where you can flip through catalog pages and zoom in to see products up close,” she adds. “To view information about specific products, roll your mouse over the page and click the tag for the product you’re interested in. This opens a box with more information, additional views, and price. Clicking ‘View Details’ takes you directly to the retailer’s site to learn more or make a purchase.”

Users can also browse Featured Catalogs from the Google Shopping home page. Google says it plans to incorporate catalogs more deeply throughout the Google Shopping experience.

Retailers who want to submit catalogs to Google, can do so here.

For some various opinions on the new Google Shopping, read this.

October 1, 2012
Is Google Shopping Good For Your Business?

Google Product Search officially becomes Google Shopping starting in October (which begins Monday), as Google completes the transition it announced in May. This means Google will move to a full paid inclusion model for product results. Merchants will no longer be able to have their products listed for free. This has been the subject of a great deal of controversy in the ecommerce world.

Some opponents claim it will hurt consumers. Some claim it will hurt businesses and competition. Google thinks it’s best for everybody.

Where do you come down on the argument? Is this a good move by Google or a bad one? Share your thoughts in the comments.

There’s a good chance you’re already seeing the new Google Shopping results in action, but we’ve also seen the old style appearing here and there.

This week, we received some comments from TheFind.com, a member of the FairSearch Coalition, which is a group of competitors who frequently speak out against Google’s business practices in order to paint the company in an uncompetitive light.

“As you may know, this Tuesday, October 1, Google will switch to an all-paid search model for shopping and product listings,” a spokesperson for TheFind said in an email. “This is uncharted territory, and at the recent Shop.org conference, it was the #1 topic of conversation among retailers. Now, only retailers who pay for paid listings will turn up in Google’s product search results. Leading marketplaces like Amazon will now be eliminated from product search results — a big blow to consumers.”

This is what TheFind CEO Siva Kumar had to say:

Google’s switch to an all-paid model is likely to confuse many consumers who will no longer see every product for their search, but will instead only see paid placements. It will be interesting to see how Google communicates this change to consumers who have come to trust that search results are a combination of ads and organic results.

This change means that using Google, consumers are no longer able to find the lowest price, nor do an exhaustive search for availability of a product among all retailers. Instead, they will only see the results from the small group of retailers who are paying to be on Google and will likely miss out on deals and availability from other retailers who are not participating.

With this move by Google, consumers lose most because they will end up paying higher prices across the board as retailers are forced to pay higher ad rates to Google. Smaller retailers also lose out when they cannot afford to participate in the pay-to-play model to have product appear.

Regarding how Google “communicates” the change, Google does disclose that it receives compensation for the listings on product search results pages, and includes “sponsored’ when they appear in regular search results.

David Scarpitta, CEO of online retailer DasCheap recently put out a press release comparing Google to a drug dealer, and indicating that he’s been forced to raise prices on his site.

“I hate to put it like this, but Google is acting kind of like a drug dealer,” Scarpitta said. “They let you try it free, then get people hooked and dependent upon it, and then you are forced to pay in order to survive as normal.”

“It’s a very sad thing,” he added. “Even here at DasCheap! we had to raise some prices in order to compensate for these costs. As so many web users use Google for accurate and instant shopping information, it has become a second nature to search there so we had no choice but to pay if we want to show our discounted items to the masses, otherwise we wouldn’t be able to show our discounted products to online users if we don’t pay. Essentially this forces us to raise prices across the board. So in essence, the finger points back to Google for the raise in retail prices. And even more unfortunate for other online retailers that can’t afford the extra expense will now lose an important revenue stream, that may put some companies in a bad state.”

As I said at the time, I’m not sure about the part about not having a choice. As sites who have relied on Google for the bulk of their traffic in the past have learned upon being hit by algorithm updates, it’s best not to put all of your eggs in one basket, and there are other ways to generate traffic to your site. Of course, that’s not to say that it isn’t a good idea to be found in Google.

Not everyone sees Google’s move as a bad thing for ecommerce. We recently had a conversation with Amit Kumar, CEO of marketing app provider Lexity, who has quite the contrary view.

“We think this is the right direction for merchants and Google,” he said. “While the free Google Product Search program was great for some SMB retailers, in general the results were hit or miss – there was very little predictability on whether products would show up in search results, how often, and detailed statistics were not available.”

“On the other hand, our customers that participated in paid advertising through the Product Listing Ads program have much more visibility into how their products are faring, and have much more control (for instance, the ability to control which products get promoted more aggressively, which products should not be shown in Google’s search results, etc),” he continued.

“In addition, having multiple potential display units showing essentially the same kind of products was very confusing to the users, and also to merchants who were trying to manage their presence on search results,” he said. “Having all of these consolidated into one helps brands manage their presence better, and users get a better shopping experience.”

As you might imagine, Google has a similar stance.

“We believe that having a commercial relationship with merchants will encourage them to keep their product information fresh and up to date,” Sameer Samat, Vice President of Product Management, Google Shopping said when the transition was announced. “Higher quality data—whether it’s accurate prices, the latest offers or product availability—should mean better shopping results for users, which in turn should create higher quality traffic for merchants.”

“When searching for great local restaurants, people want places to eat right there on the results page, not another click or two away. It’s the same with hotels, flight options, directions and shopping,” Samat said.

Either way, the transition will be complete very soon, and merchants who want to appear in Google’s product results will have little choice but to comply with the paid inclusion/product ads model. That’s not to say they do not have a choice in seeking visibility elsewhere.

For those interested in playing by Google’s new rules, you might want to check out these five videos Google has put out about Google Shopping, if you haven’t already done so.

Google recently launched a new set-up flow for Product Listing Ad creation, simplifying the process of those getting started. I’m guessing there will be a fair amount of merchants new to the process.

“The new setup flow provides a step-by-step guide on how to create an AdWords account and set up a Product Listing Ad campaign, as well as how to control when and where your products appear in Google Shopping with bids,” explained Google Shopping product manager Mayuresh Saoji. “You can also view basic campaign reporting through your Merchant Center account.”

A couple weeks ago, Google announced some changes it made for merchants. For one, Trusted Stores annotations now appear on product pages within Google Shopping. Google says this provides merchants with “greater ability to attract new customers” and helps shoppers make more informed decisions. Google also added campaign tracking URL templates that decrease the number of steps required to set up tracking in AdWords.

Many are playing ball with Google. According to Search Engine Watch, over 100,000 sellers have inventory in the new Google Shopping model. Etsy announced this week that it will participate.

Are you listing in Google Shopping? Do you plan to? Let us know in the comments.

September 29, 2012
TheFind Thinks Google Shopping Will Hurt Consumers

Google is scheduled to complete its transition to the paid inclusion-based Google Shopping model for its product search results next week. Some retailers have expressed disdain for the move, while others have embraced it. At least one has compared Google to a drug dealer.

TheFind.com, member of the FairSearch Coalition, is the latest to speak out against the transition. FairSearch, if you’re unfamiliar with the organization, is a group of Google competitors who frequently speak out against Google’s business practices in an effort to paint Google in an anticompetitive light.

TheFind CEO and co-founder Siva Kumar tells WebProNews, “Google’s switch to an all-paid model is likely to confuse many consumers who will no longer see every product for their search, but will instead only see paid placements. It will be interesting to see how Google communicates this change to consumers who have come to trust that search results are a combination of ads and organic results.”

It’s certainly worth noting that Google has said from the beginning that in its search results pages, it will display the “Sponsored” text with results from Google Shopping. Currently, if you look at shopping-specific results pages, Google displays a links that says “Why these products?” When you click that, Google says, “Products and offers that match your query. Google is compensated by some of these merchants.”

“This change means that using Google, consumers are no longer able to find the lowest price, nor do an exhaustive search for availability of a product among all retailers,” Kumar says. “Instead, they will only see the results from the small group of retailers who are paying to be on Google and will likely miss out on deals and availability from other retailers who are not participating.”

“With this move by Google, consumers lose most because they will end up paying higher prices across the board as retailers are forced to pay higher ad rates to Google,” Kumar says. “Smaller retailers also lose out when they cannot afford to participate in the pay-to-play model to have product appear.”

Of course, Google does not see the move as something that hurts consumers. “When searching for great local restaurants, people want places to eat right there on the results page, not another click or two away. It’s the same with hotels, flight options, directions and shopping,” says Sameer Samat, Vice President of Product Management, Google Shopping.

“We believe that having a commercial relationship with merchants will encourage them to keep their product information fresh and up to date,” Samat has said. “Higher quality data—whether it’s accurate prices, the latest offers or product availability—should mean better shopping results for users, which in turn should create higher quality traffic for merchants.”

Either way, the full transition is almost here. It will be interesting to see how users react.

Learn more about Google Shopping here.

September 27, 2012
Google Shopping Gets More Merchant-Friendly

Google announced some changes it has made for merchants in Google Shopping.

For one, Google Trusted Stores annotations now appear on product pages within Google Shopping. Google says this provides merchants with “greater ability to attract new customers” and helps shoppers make more informed decisions.

Google has added a new sign-up flow in Merchant Center for merchants who aren’t familiar with AdWords. Google says it makes participation easier.

There are some new AdWords Editor updates that reduce the time it takes to optimize a product listing ads campaign, “from hours to minutes, in many cases,” according to Google.

Finally, there are campaign tracking URL templates that decrease the number of steps required to set up tracking in AdWords.

Google says tens of thousands of merchants have started using Google Shopping since the transition began.

September 12, 2012
These 5 Videos Will Make You A Google Shopping Expert

Google has released the following four Google+ hangouts discussing Google Shopping. The first is an intro and overview. The second is an intro to the Merchant Center. The third is about creative and optimizing product listing ads, and the fourth is about Google Trusted Stores and setup.

Google recently shared this Google I/O session video about “empowering local shopping” with Google Shopping as well:

If you take the time to watch all of these, you should be pretty informed about the Google Shopping process.

Remember, Google will complete the transition from Product Search to Google Shopping this fall, and it’s already August.

August 6, 2012
Google Compared To Drug Dealer For Google Shopping Strategy

Google Shopping has been at the center of a lot of controversy since the company announced it in May. The paid inclusion approach has brought up Google’s old “do no evil” mantra, the FTC has been called upon to scrutinize the entire search industry on disclosure of paid results (which Google says it would support), and a lot of people are up in arms about Google removing listings for weapons.

Do you think Google Shopping is good or bad for e-commerce? Let us know in the comments.

The simple fact that Google has moved to a paid model (away from the free listing model of Google Product Search), however, is what really has a lot of merchants angry.

David Scarpitta, CEO of online retailer DasCheap, has gone so far as to issue a press reease comparing Google to a drug dealer, and indicating that he’s been forced to raise prices on his site.

“I hate to put it like this, but Google is acting kind of like a drug dealer,” Scarpitta said. “They let you try it free, then get people hooked and dependent upon it, and then you are forced to pay in order to survive as normal.”

“It’s a very sad thing,” he added. “Even here at DasCheap! we had to raise some prices in order to compensate for these costs. As so many web users use Google for accurate and instant shopping information, it has become a second nature to search there so we had no choice but to pay if we want to show our discounted items to the masses, otherwise we wouldn’t be able to show our discounted products to online users if we don’t pay. Essentially this forces us to raise prices across the board. So in essence, the finger points back to Google for the raise in retail prices. And even more unfortunate for other online retailers that can’t afford the extra expense will now lose an important revenue stream, that may put some companies in a bad state.”

While it’s certainly a good idea for a merchant to be easily found in Google, I’m not sure about the part about not having a choice. As sites who have relied on Google for the bulk of their traffic in the past have learned upon being hit by algorithm updates, it’s best not to put all of your eggs in one basket, and there are other ways to generate traffic to your site.

Apart from competing search engines, social media comes to mind, and can be effective with the right strategy. It’s also entirely possible to rank in the organic search results with the right strategy, without having to pay for a Shopping listing. People do shop from the regular results too.

One CEO told us that he sees Google Shopping as a very good thing for e-commerce. “We think this is the right direction for merchants and Google,” Amit Kumar, CEO Of marketing app provider Lexity, told WebProNews in a recent interview. “While the free Google Product Search program was great for some SMB retailers, in general the results were hit or miss – there was very little predictability on whether products would show up in search results, how often, and detailed statistics were not available.”

“On the other hand, our customers that participated in paid advertising through the Product Listing Ads program have much more visibility into how their products are faring, and have much more control (for instance, the ability to control which products get promoted more aggressively, which products should not be shown in Google’s search results, etc),” he added.

“In addition, having multiple potential display units showing essentially the same kind of products was very confusing to the users, and also to merchants who were trying to manage their presence on search results,” said Kumar. “Having all of these consolidated into one helps brands manage their presence better, and users get a better shopping experience.”

We’ve heard from plenty of frustrated merchants who express views more along the lines of Scarpitta’s. A WebProNews reader recently commented, “Many small companies have used Google ( Froogle, Base, Shopping ) as their resource for free advertising of their products. This is just an attack on those small companies and only allow companies who can afford to pay to do so.”

“I’ve always respected Google as a company for the great new technologies that they have implemented over the years, however I feel that there is a certain amount of greed here that will not only affect the grass roots retailer themselves but overall the consumer as well,” said Scarpitta. “Despite this grim scenario, we are going to do the best we can for our customers to continue to offer them the lowest prices and the best service in accordance with this new regulation in place. I hope others can do the same.”

Google says ranking in Google Shopping will be based on “a combination of relevance and bid price,” the same as Product Listing Ads today, and those who want to stand out can participate in Google’s Trusted Stores program and/or use special offers.

Google Shopping might be able to help out local businesses. Google certainly thinks it can. At its annual developer conference a couple weeks ago, the company hosted a session on empowering local shopping through Google shopping.

“More and more of consumers research online first before going to a local store to purchase a product and we can expect this trend to continue to rise,” the company said. “Local shopping enables merchants to declare product price and availability per local store.”

In the session, Google discusses how to set up and manage local shopping accounts in the Google Merchant Center, and how to ue the Content API to upload local products and do live inventory updates.

The transition from Google Product Search to Google Shopping is supposed to be complete in the fall. Merchants who create product listing ads by August 15% can get a 10% monthly credit of their total Product Listring ad spend through the end of the year, and current Product Search merchants can get a hundred dollar AdWords credit toward the ads if they fill out a form before that date.

Let us know what you think about Google Shopping.

July 14, 2012
Shop Till You Drop On Mobile Devices With Google Shopping

I have not yet purchased a single thing on my mobile device. I have the Amazon mobile app, but it’s just not a very consumer friendly mobile app as far as the shopping experience goes. Maybe things will start to look up for the mobile shopping experience as Google Shopping has now launched for mobile devices and tablets.

But wait, isn’t Google Shopping already available on mobile devices? You would be correct, but it has been redesigned to take full advantage of the medium. The redesign is called the “new Google Shopping experience” and will be based on product listing ads.

The new Google Shopping for mobile will imitate the desktop version by allowing customers to compare different products with the help of pictures and descriptions. Tablet devices are also getting search refinements so that shoppers can find exactly what they’re looking for.

Google has specifically built two different shopping experiences for phones and tablets to fit in with what people are doing most often on these devices. Since most people use their tablet at home while watching TV, Google shopping will be attuned to help people find the products they see advertised on television.

Google has also set up a few incentives for merchants to start driving up sales across smartphones and tablets:
Both new and existing merchants who create Product Listing Ads by August 15, 2012 will automatically receive a monthly credit for 10% of their total Product Listing Ad spend through the end of 2012.
Existing Google Product Search merchants who are new to Product Listing Ads can receive $100 AdWords credit toward Product Listing Ads if they fill out a form before August 15, 2012.

Unfortunately, Google still isn’t listing guns on their shopping portal. They do, however, have a wide selection of airsoft guns.

July 13, 2012

Joaquin Almunia, the European Commission’s head of competition, has expressed concerns about Google, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to result in a long, drawn-out legal process for the company. Almunia and Google seem to be in the process of talking things out, and that may or may not lead to Google making some changes, at least in Europe.

A Google spokesperson tells WebProNews, “We continue to work cooperatively with the European Commission.”

The Guardian’s Charles Arthur reports that Almunia has given Google until July 2 to come up with suitable changes to its search results “or face the threat of being taken to court and potentially huge fines.”

Almunia seems to want to get things resolved quickly one way or another. He recently released a lengthy statement, saying, “I believe that these fast-moving markets would particularly benefit from a quick resolution of the competition issues identified. Restoring competition swiftly to the benefit of users at an early stage is always preferable to lengthy proceedings, although these sometimes become indispensable to competition enforcement.”

In the statement, he then went on to outline the four specific concerns the Commission has with Google’s business practices.

The first:

First, in its general search results on the web, Google displays links to its own vertical search services. Vertical search services are specialised search engines which focus on specific topics, such as for example restaurants, news or products. Alongside its general search service, Google also operates several vertical search services of this kind in competition with other players.

In its general search results, Google displays links to its own vertical search services differently than it does for links to competitors. We are concerned that this may result in preferential treatment compared to those of competing services, which may be hurt as a consequence.

Interestingly, Google just revealed this week that it is transitioning its free Google Product Search to a sponsored/paid inclusion model in Google Shopping. Google says this transition will be complete in the fall, in the U.S. It will be interesting to see if this expands throughout Google’s international properties, particularly in Europe.

Some are suggesting that this represents Google’s shift away to the “do no evil” policy. Owen Thomas at Business Insider, for example, writes, “Let’s just admit that Google is evil now, okay?”

A WebProNews reader commented, “Many small companies have used Google ( Froogle, Base, Shopping ) as their resource for free advertising of their products. This is just an attack on those small companies and only allow companies who can afford to pay to do so.”

Comments such as these aren’t likely to help Google’s antitrust cases, and let’s not forget that the FTC is looking at Google in the U.S. too.

Long time search analyst Danny Sullivan says, “Paid relationships can be good,” and “The fact Google considered paid inclusion evil in the past is an embarrassment that some will have a good chuckle about. But companies do change stances. The bigger issue in all this is whether the shift is good for searchers and publishers.”

Almunia’s second concern:

Our second concern relates to the way Google copies content from competing vertical search services and uses it in its own offerings. Google may be copying original material from the websites of its competitors such as user reviews and using that material on its own sites without their prior authorisation. In this way they are appropriating the benefits of the investments of competitors. We are worried that this could reduce competitors’ incentives to invest in the creation of original content for the benefit of internet users. This practice may impact for instance travel sites or sites providing restaurant guides.

To this point, we’ve seen competitors like Yelp complain about Google using their reviews in Google Places in the past. It just so happens that Google made another major announcement this week regarding local search, in that it is shifting to Google+ Page-based local results, which will provide reviews from its own Zagat (acquired last year), and from Google+-based friends.

This may give Google less of reason to aggregate outside reviews, but at the same time, it places increased focus on Google properties. It will be interesting to see how regulators view this move.

It’s worth noting that with this movie, Google is giving small businesses more tools to reach their customers on a social level (with Google+ features, such as Hangouts).

Almunia’s third and fourth concerns:

Almunia’s other concerns are related to Google AdWords and competition.

Our third concern relates to agreements between Google and partners on the websites of which Google delivers search advertisements. Search advertisements are advertisements that are displayed alongside search results when a user types a query in a website’s search box. The agreements result in de facto exclusivity requiring them to obtain all or most of their requirements of search advertisements from Google, thus shutting out competing providers of search advertising intermediation services. This potentially impacts advertising services purchased for example by online stores, online magazines or broadcasters.

Our fourth concern relates to restrictions that Google puts to the portability of online search advertising campaigns from its platform AdWords to the platforms of competitors. AdWords is Google’s auction-based advertising platform on which advertisers can bid for the placement of search ads on search result pages provided by Google. We are concerned that Google imposes contractual restrictions on software developers which prevent them from offering tools that allow the seamless transfer of search advertising campaigns across AdWords and other platforms for search advertising.

Another of Google’s recent major announcements – the Knowledge Graph – is reportedly increasing the number of searches on Google, and it just so happens that this gives Google more opportunities to display AdWords ads.