For e-commerce advertisers who wish to drive traffic, retain customers and grow sales, Google Shopping is a great solution to increase their revenue.

Yesterday 17 May, step 3 of lockdown easing began, meaning people are one step closer to ‘normality’ and shoppers have more opportunities to explore in-store retail again.

While this brings more sales from in-store retail, e-commerce continues to have a huge potential established during the pandemic.

As we’ve covered in previous blogs, online shopping is here to stay. The pandemic has brought long-term changes to the shopping behaviour at a consumer and sector-by-sector level, with the majority of consumers set to remain online shoppers even after the pandemic.

In this blog, we discuss the ‘why’ of Google shopping, the benefits and how as a retailer you can grow your sales and Return on investment with Google Shopping ads and Google CSS.

First things first – What is Google Shopping?

Google Shopping is a service that enables consumers to search for, browse, compare, and buy products from different brands and retailers who pay to advertise their products on Google.

All the advertised products appear on Google Shopping results as thumbnail images, displaying retailer and price for each advertised product. These are called listings and are regularly updated by the advertiser with details and product information.

For consumers, offers on Google Shopping are generally ranked based on relevance, search terms and other Google activity. Some advertising data can also be used to improve the quality of search results.

Merchants who chose to advertise their products on Google Shopping are automatically part of commercial activity and therefore must comply with Google Shopping policies that detail what can and cannot be listed on Google Shopping. Advertised items that don’t comply with the Google Shopping policies are removed and further actions can consist in the suspension of the seller’s account.

To summarise, Google Shopping is:

• Powerful: Google Shopping applies Google's search technology to help consumers find and research products from online stores across the web and then directs them to make a purchase

• Comprehensive: Google Shopping allows consumers to find both common and unusual products.

• Fast: photos, links, product information, stores are all available to view from the very first search result.

How Google Shopping works

1. Reviews

To help shoppers with product research, Google gathers reviews from other consumers through the Google Customer Reviews program. Google also requires advertisers, sellers and third-party review providers to submit positive and negative reviews and then gathers them as part of the Google review collecting process.

Before showing any review on Google Shopping, Google uses an automated system to process the comments, to ensure that inappropriate language and spammy messages are all removed. A review can appear on Google Shopping for as long as the reviewed item is advertised on Google.

2. Making a purchase

When consumers find a product of interest on Google Shopping, they’ll see the item price and applicable taxes. Then, they can click on the product and they’ll then land on the sellers’ website and there complete their purchase. The seller’s website is also the best place to find all information about shipping methods, shipping costs, applicable insurances or warranties.

3. Customer support

Customer support is entirely the responsibility of each seller, who can assist consumers with any issues or queries they may have.

Benefits of Google Shopping

·       Better conversion rates: Google shopping is proven to generate 30% higher conversion rates compared to text ads.

·       Better user experience: Google shopping ads are visually more appealing compared to text ads and they make the overall shopping experience easier for consumers compared to text ads

·       Broader presence and reach: Google shopping ads can show one listing up to 3 times — as a website result, a text online Paid result and a Google Shopping result.

·       Better qualified leads: Including important information, descriptions and high-resolution images to ads increase the quality of leads in Google Shopping, helping shoppers make more informed purchase decisions.

·       Better data reporting: product performance on Google Shopping can be monitored at any level of granularity, keeping track of clicks, product views, and insights into the competitive landscape.

The two sides of Google Shopping

There are 2 sides of Google Shopping that are both moving motors for retailers to boost their online sales. They are Google Shopping Ads and Google CSS for shopping.

1. Google Shopping Ads

When user search terms are matched to the information contained in the Product Title, Product Description or Product Type, the products appear in Google Shopping Ads. The bidding strategy, campaign structure and overall quality score will determine the position of the Ad within Google Shopping.

2. Google CSS for shopping

Similar to google shopping ads, the user’s initial search term is matched to information within your Product Title and/or Product Description and/or Product Type, but, all Product Feeds should be fully optimised to benefit from the traffic on this website. This is achieved through a Google Comparison Shopping (Google CSS) Partner. The are several benefits to operating Google Shopping through a Google CSS partner and among the benefits are:

·       Higher e-commerce conversion traffic

·       20% lower Cost per Click

·       Higher Return on Ad Spend

·       Increased Shopping Revenue

Start selling more online

Hopefully, this blog has given you enough insights into how Google Shopping works and how beneficial it is to boost your e-commerce business. As an online retailer, you have the advantage of boosting your product sales on Google Shopping through a Google CSS partner, that can guarantee high e-commerce conversion traffic while cutting the average ad cost down by 20%.

If you’d like to learn more about Google CSS, book a free demo with our team today!

Image Credit: Unsplash @arturorey