E-Commerce Express : google

5 Tips for Optimizing Product Listing Ads

'Net Features : wm-ecommerce — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 19:15:00 GMT

Since Google introduced Product Listing Ads (PLAs) as part of its Google Shopping initiative last year, Internet advertisers and online merchants have been working hard to find the best possible ways to optimize the performance of their PLAs. These product...(read more)

Google Promo Credit for International Merchants

'Net Features : wm-ecommerce — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 18:20:00 GMT

Google’s rollout of its Product Listing Ads model for Google shopping is going swimmingly – so much so in fact that’s its swimming right across the pond, announcing last month that the program would be going international. The rollout...(read more)

Google Predicts a “Nonline” Holiday Shopping Season

'Net Features : wm-ecommerce — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 02:16:00 GMT

As October is ending and November is quickly approaching, it is safe to say that retailers have one thing on their minds – the holidays. However, merchants should be aware that the 2012 holiday season is going to be different than years past, at...(read more)

Self-Service Approach to Market Research

'Net Features : wm-ecommerce — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 16:50:00 GMT

Whether it's an unpleasant customer service interaction or issues with the product itself, at some point, we've all complained about our financial institution. A new partnership between Google and Harris Interactive gives consumers a voice, while...(read more)

Google Seller Rating Extensions Get Refresh

'Net Features : wm-ecommerce — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 19:51:00 GMT

It has been over two years since Google initially introduced seller rating extensions, an advetising feature that provided merchants the ability to show their merchant star rating from Google Product Search within AdWords ads. The star ratings, which...(read more)

Mobile & Video Influencing Apparel Purchases

'Net Features : wm-ecommerce — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 19:00:00 GMT

A new Google study reveals that mobile and video are the keys to success for apparel merchants. The study found that many apparel consumers are shopping on mobile devices and using online videos as tools in their purchasing decisions. In fact, 4 in 10...(read more)

Spice Up Holiday SEO with Product Microdata

Website Magazine : ecommerce — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 21:00:00 GMT

Google can be stingy with new information about its search algorithm, which makes the company's sharing of some recent changes all the more important for Web professionals. Likely the biggest difference in the algorithm is that Google “is now...(read more)

Local Products Startup Milo Purchased by eBay

Linc Wonham — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 01:05:00 GMT

E-commerce giant eBay struck a significant deal Thursday, purchasing startup local product inventory search engine Milo.com for a reported $75 million.

There has been a lot of recent attention given to the growing importance of local commerce – with rumors swirling about a possible deal between Google and Groupon, as well as Amazon potentially investing in LivingSocial – and Thursday’s acquisition affirms that eBay has been doing more than just listening.

Milo lists product inventory for more than 50,000 stores across the U.S., including major retailers such as Macy’s, Best Buy and Target. Overall, the site features more than 3 million products for which users can search and determine in real-time whether a local store is carrying that product and at what price.

The site is an indispensable tool for local merchants to attract online customers to their brick-and-mortar stores. With Forrester projecting the research-online, shop-offline market to reach $1 trillion in 2011, Milo’s mission was to take ownership of that bridge between online browsing and in-store buying.

The purchase by eBay will give Milo a larger platform to do exactly that, but there are some potential obstacles. Google recently rolled out a local product inventory feature of its own in anticipation of the 2010 holidays, and Amazon is not likely to let neither Google nor eBay get too comfortable in the local products space without making a move.

And Google’s aforementioned interest in local deals provider Groupon, paired with Amazon’s interest in Groupon competitor LivingSocial, hints that the entire local commerce space is not only heating up but could also become fiercely competitive in 2011.

Rich Snippets for Ecommerce

Pete Prestipino — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 15:52:00 GMT

Google announced on its Webmaster Central blog that they are now supporting rich snippets for ecommerce sites.

Rich snippets provide the ability to display structured data from web pages. Google's new ecommerce format will enable merchatns to show price, availiablity, and product reviews on pages offerings products for sale.

Merchants can show the information needed for product rich snippets by either providing a merchant center feed or add markup to their site. Since most ecommerce sites already provide Merchant Center feeds for use in Google Product Search, the majority of the neccessary work is already done. To make use of Merchant Center feeds for rich snippets, Google advises using the rel=”canonical” link element on product pages. By doing so Google can match the URLs in your feed to the pages found by its crawler.

The feature is currently only available to merchants located in the US, but Google will be rolling it out in more markets soon.