'Net Features : product search

What's New With Google Shopping?

Michael Garrity — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 20:15:00 GMT

The Internet was buzzing last week at the beta launch of Google’s latest service, Google Shopping. As always, the most recognizable name on the ‘Net is trying to wedge its way into another industry, but what will this mean for the e-commerce industry?

First of all, it’s important to understand exactly what Google is up to here, in case you haven’t heard. Essentially, Google is re-branding its Google Product Search services with a whole new business model. Soon, only merchants that pay to advertise with Google will be listed in the company’s product search.

In other words, Google has created a secondary retail-focused search engine that exclusively features paid advertisers.

However, as far as anyone can tell right now, this will definitely also play a role in regular search engine results, at least when users are searching for a specific product (or when a search can be construed as product-related). When Google presumes that the user has a potential intent to purchase, they’ll offer up paid (sponsored) listings next to the Web search results, so that they’re actually the first thing users see. Although the organic results will remain the same, they will not necessarily be the focal point of the SERPs any longer.

Of course, these product listings are more than just text ads, as they feature images, descriptions, links to the retailer’s sites and the current price. All of this is presented as a single, separate experience from the rest of the search results.

Either multiple product listings partitioned off in their own “sponsored” box, or a single product can appear on the right side of the page that includes a more detailed description. The former is typically designated for more general product searches, while the latter is reserved for very specific product queries (see examples below).

This practice combines product ads and Google Product Search, and helps to ensure that the paid listings don’t actually affect the organic search results – if we’re still calling Google Search organic. While this is all currently in a very experimental beta period, it's clearly an idea to which Google appears committed.

So, what does this mean for online retail, Google ads and product search?

Well, for one, it will force merchants to keep their ads up-to-date and accurate, since they are going to be charged as advertising partners just for the opportunity to list their products. This will be easy for them, as Google Shopping ads will come complete with an API that merchants can use to update their listings.

Bidding will be different, as now merchants will no longer be competing for keywords, but rather bidding how much they’d be willing to pay, if their listings appear and get clicks or generate conversions. Higher rankings will then depend on a combination of perceived relevance and the price of the bid.

Theoretically, these Google Shopping listings will help weed out redundant or irrelevant results for searchers, making them more enticing to consumers and, thus, more profitable (or worth the investment) for retailers.

Most of all, this whole scheme seems to be Google’s attempt to combat major e-commerce retailers, specifically Amazon. Whereas before Amazon was something of a one-stop shop for consumers looking to buy online, Google has now presented itself as an (arguably more efficient) alternative, allowing users to base their purchasing decisions on more product options from a wider variety of retailers.

This could drastically alter the e-commerce landscape and give smaller online retailers a much better chance at competing with the big boys.

Of course, it also runs the risk of shutting out those same smaller businesses that don't have the budget to afford buying product listings. Those companies that survive on the Web largely through the existence of free product search listings could also see some negative effects from this change.

Details are slim at the moment, and there is no official word on when Google will do away with free product listings, but the company did state in a blog post that it would like to have Google Shopping up-and-running by the fall of 2012.

Merchants have two incentives for transitioning to the new format, a 10-percent monthly credit through 2012 for ads created by August 15, or a $100 AdWords credit for existing Product Search merchants who fill out a form by the same date.

More Detailed Data in Google Product Search

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 15:30:00 GMT

Google announced a series of improvements to its Google Product Search offering (formerly Google Base).

According to a post on the Google Commerce blog, the enhancement aims to make data on “product performance and consumer buying habits” more accessible to retailers.

In addition to aggregate click reporting on all products in an account which was previously available, E-commerce merchants who submit product feeds to Google Product Search will now be able to view much more detailed product performance data, including click metrics for specific product categories, brands, condition and country.

For many it will be hard to believe that it’s taken this long for Google to provide such even this level of reporting; but something is better than nothing, right?

Merchants See Performance Gains at Channel Intelligence

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 15:43:00 GMT

With consumer confidence still at record low levels, and in an increasingly complicated technical environment, Internet retailers that are actively marketing products on comparison shopping may be the only ones that will be left standing as consumers continue to look for the lowest price – and not just their favorite merchants. Those merchants with an eye on performance optimization will be thriving and not just surviving.

Retail clients of Channel Intelligence (CI), a provider of performance-based e-commerce services (product search, paid search, display ads), saw a thirty percent year-over-year sales increase (on a same-seller basis). Retailers using CI Product Search saw a 28 percent year-over-year sales increase, and clients using CI’s Shopping Engines service experienced a 32 percent increase compared to the same period in 2010.

“Although there is a significant increase in year-over-year sales, our analysis reveals that consumer confidence may still be weak because we see the majority of online shoppers currently making selections based on price.” said Rob Wight, CEO of CI. “The good news is that consumers are spending. They are just being very deliberate and price-conscious in how they spend.”

Channel Intelligence has a long roster of leading companies as clients including Best Buy, Target, HP and others and drives upwards of $2 billion annually in online sales.

What's New in Google Product Feeds?

Pete Prestipino — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 13:36:00 GMT

Google announced several important changes to its product search feed specification this week. If you're an Internet retailer and use Google Product Search as a channel to promote products, the developments should be top of mind.

The changes relate primarily to providing shoppers with more accurate and "fresher" information. Google is now requiring merchants to show availability of products, include the appropriate Google product category, and is making the image link mandatory as well. For retailers selling apparel, merchants will need to include information such as size and color as well as for whom the product is designed (age and gender).

Perhaps the most important aspect of the announcement was that starting September 22, 2011, Google will take "taking action" against accounts with feeds targeting the United States, France, United Kingdom, Japan, and Germany that do not comply with the new specification and policy requirements.

Big Changes to Google Product Search

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 22:20:00 GMT

Google announced a significant round of changes for merchants using Google Product Search. These changes only affect Google Product Search listings and not Google Commerce Search or Adwords listings.

For feeds targeting the United States, tax information will be required for all feeds starting June 6th, 2011.

According to Google, product listings that do not include tax information at the account level, or in the “tax” attribute, may be rejected. Google is also recommending the addition of two new attributes - "sale price" and "sale price effective date" (not required) for feeds targeting the U.S. exclusively.

In addition, feeds targeting the U.S., U.K., France and Germany, Google will require unique product identifiers (starting May 3rd, 2011) for all products except apparel and one-of-a-kind items, and shipping information (starting June 6th, 2011).

Feeds from accounts that do not include this inforamtion may be disapproved by Google. Products without unique product identifiers may not be listed in Google Product Search, though the feed may not be disapproved.

Google Adds Nearby Shops to U.K. Product Search

Linc Wonham — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 11:51:00 GMT

Google has announced a new feature for online shoppers and merchants in the U.K., called Nearby Shops. The feature is already available in Google’s U.S. Product Search, and was rolled out in the U.K. on Wednesday.

Consumers searching for items on Google Products are now shown a map that indicates the locations of nearby stores that sell the item or items similar to the one typed into the search query. The feature matches stores listed in Google Places with the products in a retailer’s Merchant Center Account, so merchants will appear in Nearby Shops product search results once they have linked the two with the same URL.

Google’s announcement comes a day after eBay announced the integration of a product inventory tool called GiftsNearby with the local shopping site it acquired earlier in the month, Milo. Competition in the local commerce sector, particularly where online research drives offline purchasing at local stores, is already fierce among the top online powers and only expected to grow even fiercer in 2011.

Other recent improvements to Google Product Search include the mobile product inventory tool gained through the acquisition of Blue Dot, and two new search tools called Popular Products and Aisles that list items by search volume and sort them into sub-categories, respectively. The online-research, offline-purchase space has been estimated by Forrester Research to be worth a staggering $917 billion, and Google and others are aggressively trying to establish their places in the market.