Google Shopping, formerly known as Google Product Search, Froogle, and Google Base, was established in 2002. Google Shopping is considered by most to be the industry leader in comparison shopping engines, and according to Channel Advisor, as of June 2010 GPS held 26% of the comparison shopping engine market share. Google Shopping is a price comparison service that allows consumers to compare products, prices, and descriptions through one easy search engine interface. It is a helpful resource for consumers and a powerful tool for businesses looking to improve their product visibility and sales.
One reason that Google Shopping is so effective is because the majority of individuals in the U.S. use Google.com when initially searching for a product. According to research conducted by Nielson in August of 2010, Google controls 65.1% percent of the total share of searches in the U.S1. Since products from Google Shopping come up on the first page of organic search results, many consumers are likely to continue their shopping process using Google Shopping instead of clicking on an alternative link.
Cost of Listing Products in Google Shopping
What makes Google Shopping unique is that it is completely free for both merchants and consumers. Unlike many other comparison shopping engines, Google Shopping does not charge businesses a cost per click fee, flat rate, or start-up fee.
Benefits of Listing Products in Google Shopping for E-Commerce Merchants
Google Shopping is the most widely used comparison shopping engine that can help businesses by:
- Increasing website traffic and sales
- Influencing their organic Google ranking
- Promoting the use of data feed optimization
- Providing explosive readership with OneBox listings
Benefits of Using Google Shopping for Consumers
Google Shopping gives shoppers the ability to sort the results of their search queries, so that it is fast and easy to find exactly what they are looking for at the right price. On Google Shopping, customers are able to:
- Sort products by price (low to high to high to low), brand, store, category, or relevance
- Read ratings and reviews of seller
- Find which local stores carry the products they are searching for
- Add products to a shopping list and share list with others
- Search for products with Google Checkout, free shipping, or new items
How to List Products in Google Shopping
Merchants that want to include their merchandise in Google Shopping should:
- Set up an account in Google Merchant Center
- Create a data feed in an XML file, which includes the attributes of all of the products
- Format the data feed to Google’s specifications
- Register and submit the feed by uploading it to your Google Merchant Center Account
- Check for you product listings after about 4 hours
1http://en-us.nielsen.com/content/nielsen/en_us/insights/rankings/internet.html
To get started, visit: http://www.google.com/intl/en_us/products/submit.html
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