How to Sell on Google Shopping: A Beginner’s Guide 2022

by Hammad HussainJul 27, 2022 9min read

Get the complete information about how to sell on Google Shopping, including setting up a merchant center account, bidding, and how to engage your audience.

Introduction to Google Shopping

Hubspot reported that Google handles over 5.6 billion searches everyday. This staggering figure gives you an idea about the importance of Google and what you need to do to start using it for your benefit.

The e-commerce scene across the globe is rising rapidly. Especially during the last two years, during the COVID-19 years, businesses saw a huge boom in their revenue as customers preferred to shop online/ with most retail shops shut down. The situation is still not normal, as lengthy lockdowns in China have slowed the growth in the world, coupled with high energy costs. Moreover, customers like to use reliable platforms, as scams in online shopping are rampant.

One reliable solution is Google Shopping. If you are unfamiliar with how to sell products on Google, this blog will help you greatly. You can easily imagine there are a number of products which you can sell on Google shopping easily but how to do this is the real deal.

Let me define what it is all about and how the sellers can attract customers to their online stores.

Evolution of Google Shopping

Google Shopping was started as Froogle and was also known as Google Product Search and Google Products. But now, the official name is Google Shopping. Technically speaking, Google Shopping isn't even a marketplace. As a test, more of an advertising platform that allows retailers to list their products and sell them to shoppers.

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An Indepth Look at Google Shopping

Google Shopping is a service that offers consumers to look for, examine and compare goods. And we are not talking just about physical goods as digital content like PDF books and apps are now included. Listing on google shopping and related questions must be on your mind. Read on as I discuss these in the subsequent paragraphs.

Google Shopping is an online shopping destination through which buyers have the convenience of comparing the best products, finding the best price and deals according to their preferences. It is also great for buyers for finding discounts deals too.

Like a marketplace, retailers can list their products on Google Shopping for sale. But it doesn't charge a commission on sales. Google Shopping generates revenue through advertising, just like the search engine Google.com.

Is Google Shopping for Specific Shoppers?

Google shopping is especially beneficial for small and medium-sized businesses and startups who want to compete with big companies in the market. Because of the low budget for marketing, social media platforms and Google shopping are the best way forward for them. In a nutshell, Google selling is for everyone and free.

Businesses can reach a large audience and showcase their products.. For example, any company can provide images for its sneakers alongside Nike and Adidas, and people searching for them will also see them.

Google Merchant Center

Take a look at the screenshot of Google Merchant Center for the information you need to put into getting started.

The benefits of Merchant Center will now be discussed.

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Local Promotion with Surfaces Across Google

Another benefit of the Merchant Center is that it allows physical store owners to sell products to local shoppers across Google. This way, they can reach their target audience, which resides near them as is known as "Surfaces across Google."

Buyers also find this beneficial as they can physically locate the seller's office. This gives them the surety that the seller is a genuine company. This can be especially useful for the Pakistani market as people as wary of shopping online because of various scam stories they go through.

Shopping Actions

Shopping actions is another Google shopping feature that offers excellent support for the seller. Buyers can buy a product right from the Google shopping tab without visiting the store by selecting the product from the listing. Through this feature, the buyers can check out through Google without relying on the payment method or process provided by the seller. This is an easy and convenient way to do the shopping and a win-win situation for buyers and sellers.

Benefits of Google Shopping

Selling on Google Shopping allows SMBs a chance to make it big by reaching audiences they can't by using traditional brick-and-mortar stores. Generating leads and increasing sales is a lot easier through this platform. Take a look at the key benefits of Google Shopping below.

Free Listing

Google shopping is entirely free, so anyone can upload the products to Google Merchant Center and list them in the Google shopping tab. If you want to sell products on Google, you don't have to start with a large investment and can sell on Google Marketplace with not much difficulty.

Reach a Large Audience

Listing on Google shopping allows sellers to reach new customers. With a humongous four billion Google users, the potential for any seller is endless. With the right product and getting the attention of their target audience, businesses can hit the jackpot by offering deals that can excite people. Google shopping is for everyone, making it a massive marketplace for anyone with a great idea.

Cost-effective Advertising

As partially discussed above, SMBs may be short on cash for marketing. Google shopping offers the best remedy for them, running on the same model as PPC. You only pay when someone clicks on your ad, rather than for anyone just skimming through. Selling products on Google is now even more convenient as businesses can target specific customers based on their interests and behavior.

From 2020 onwards, there is now a leveling field for everyone as Google balances the top spot between promoted products and ads. It gives equal opportunity to every business to market its products.

What do you Need to Do Before you Get your Store Ready?

Correct contact information is the first thing that you need to display. That must include all the information about your store's website, physical address, phone number, and email address.

Refund policy is the second aspect you must display alongside terms of service.

Details about the checkout process should also be mentioned to avoid ambiguity.

Information about the languages and the currency of your target country is also. You must check the list of countries' currencies and languages if you are unsure how many you want to include apart from Pakistan and Pak Rupee.

Shipping and tax settings are also necessary. These are visible on any e-commerce website or services offering website builders like Webx.

How to Setup Product Feed in Google Merchant Center?

Google provides a detailed onboarding guide to ready your Merchant Center; you can start by checking out your business settings. Especially check your website and your local store and associate your account with your website's platform. You can create a feed manually or generate it automatically with your e-commerce platform and also choose your email preferences.

After that, you can upload the feed through the inventory panel and see how your product will look on Google shopping.

You can then finalize the setup by adding the tax information, shipping, and everything else that belongs to your website. Be sure to optimize your store's performance regularly for the best results. You also need to sign up for Google services and shopping actions. After that, you can start promoting by creating paid ads and communicating with customers.

As soon as you access the merchant center, the onboarding process will help you set up your account and everything else you need to start selling on google shopping.

Create Google Shopping Campaign

Once you are done with setting up the account and Merchant Center, it is time to create a Google Shopping campaign that can excite your target audience. You can use your Google Merchant Center account to link Google Ads and Google Shopping.

To create a campaign, you need to provide information starting with the campaign's name and how much you want to spend in the country or regions you want to target. Then you need to select the product group for your campaign. Google can provide you with a few options you can always change later.

After selecting the product group, you are ready to create your ads. Every ad will feature one of your products. Some information about them, including the title, description, and price, will come in handy.

Bidding

Once you are done with the shopping campaign, place bids on your ads. The amount you will spend will impact how often your ad appears and its ranking on the search results. That's why it is crucial to set your bits at a level at which you are comfortable.

Bid Simulator is a Google tool that offers you exactly how your bids will impact your ad position and what you need to do to make it work. You need to target and organize your Google shopping campaign into ad groups.

Target specific countries or regions, and you can also target by language. This will give you the option of targeting customers from different regions. Another great way to do this is by targeting your campaign through a device. So if you want to target mobile or desktop users, you can easily do so.

You can also target your campaign by the time of the day and on different days. If you think your campaign will work on weekends, you can select Saturday and Sunday and target your ads.

Everything mentioned above is essential to make your ads relevant and only your target audience sees them. This will help you decrease the cost of your ads and make them effective and efficient.

More Information on Streamlining the Process

Start with ensuring your product data is correct and up to date. You can choose what keywords will not be used for your ad to narrow down the searches. High-quality images in your ads will give you the edge over all the others who use low-quality images; these images effectively ensure any person easily see the product, and a blurred vision will lessen the impact.

Test your ads before making the campaign live and monitor the campaign closely. Google Shopping is a dynamic platform, which means that everything changes quickly. So you must be aware of any change and act accordingly.

Final Word

I hope everything I've mentioned above will help you understand Google Shopping to set up your account. If you think that you need some extra information about any of the aspects mentioned, you are welcome to add your bit. You can also use the comments section for your valuable feedback.

FAQs

How can I sell on Google Shopping?

Selling on Google shopping is not difficult. But you need to understand some basic aspects like setting up a merchant center account and how to bid to make your products on top of searches.

Is it free to sell on Google?

Yes. Selling on Google Shopping is free. You need to upload your products to Google Merchant Center and list them on the Google Shopping tab. When your customers opt for “Buy on Google” checkout, buyers and sellers won’t have to pay any commission or fees.