Product listing on the famous Google Shopping comparison engine will soon be free of charge. An opportunity to take stock of this strategic aspect of e-commerce! Optimizing the flow of traffic between your e-commerce site and marketplaces or comparison sites is crucial to the success of your product listings.

Is free Google Shopping good news or bad?

Since April 22, Google has been displaying products free of charge in the Shopping tab of its search results, whereas until now this was a paid form of advertising (ad reviewed on abondance.com). On June 29, Google announced that it was going one step further by including free ads in the knowledge panel of the main "All" tab of the search engine (again on abondance.com). For the moment, these changes are only active in the United States, but they should be rolled out worldwide before the end of the year. What's behind these changes?

E-commerce at the heart of the Google/Amazon war

Officially, it was following the Covid19 crisis and the importance of e-commerce in saving the business of many confined retailers that Google is gradually returning to a free e-commerce platform (as was the case between 2002 and 2012 with Froogle). Until then, you had to pay to see your products appear in Google Shopping. Now, the web giant seems intent on making its e-commerce platform accessible to all. Even the smallest sellers who don't have a SEA (Search Engine Advertising) budget will theoretically be able to be promoted on Google.

Behind the humanist rhetoric, this measure enables Google Shopping (comparison shopping) and therefore also Google Actions (marketplace) to capture a larger product database than Amazon, its main competitor. Even sellers with no e-commerce site will be able to get in on the action! This will create far greater competition on this platform than is currently the case. One of the immediate effects will be an increase in the price per click for paid ads, which enable users to stay at the top of the page (read more on ptitdigital.fr). A highly profitable operation for Google.

The ever-growing power of marketplaces

This free service will enable Google to continue gaining market share in online sales. This could change consumer habits, and therefore the whole face of e-commerce. Should e-commerce sites fear a drop in traffic? Is customer loyalty becoming more important than sales? Should investment in marketplaces, in terms of flow management and content development, be increased?

Soledis helps manage the flow between your e-commerce site and marketplaces or comparators

When it comes to selling products online, it's hard to ignore the appeal of marketplaces such as Amazon, La Redoute for home furnishings, Fnac.com for culture, ManoMano in the hardware sector... Comparison sites such as Google Shopping, Kelkoo, Liligo... are also essential for boosting sales. How does it work in practice?

Avoid wasting time and information managing flows between your e-commerce site and comparators or marketplaces

The product information present on your e-commerce site (image, description, price, delivery times, stock...) is transferred to marketplaces and comparisons using flow managers such as Lengow or BeezUP, to name but a few chosen by Soledis. These same flow managers will send orders placed on marketplaces and comparators back to your site.

NodalMediaits webmarketing agency can advise you on choosing the right marketplaces for your market. Soledis can then support you in choosing this flow manager, configuring it and providing support in the event of a malfunction.

 

Don't neglect your product descriptions!

Whether on your e-commerce site or on marketplaces and comparison sites, writing a complete and accurate product description is crucial. Too often, we want to move quickly through this "filling-in" stage. Beyond the EAN, which will define the product in a universal reference system, you need to look for product specificity that your competitors won't have. The choice of keywords and the definition of each variation are essential to make the difference. 

You must also respect the rules of the marketplaces game:

  • images must not be logotyped (even as watermarks),
  • the prices advertised must be the same as on your website,
  • the shipping policy must be perfectly clear and consistent between the site and Google shopping,
  • and delivery times must be respected...

Otherwise you'll be disbarred!

In the information flow sent to marketplaces and comparators, be sure to fill in as much micro-data as possible. These are tags that appear in the code of the product file and enhance the display of your products through specific highlighting.

To understand the specificities of BtoB SEO.

What strategy should you adopt in the face of free Google Shopping?

With Google Shopping now free, it's a safe bet that the number of products on this comparator will explode. To gain an advantage, you need to be first and have richer content than your competitors. Your content could then serve as a benchmark, taking precedence over that of your competitors. Most of the time, therefore, we carefully duplicate the product data sheets on our e-commerce site to marketplace and comparator sites, if necessary with specific fields.

The side effects of such a strategy (the most widespread) are not negligible: your natural referencing will drop because search engines will detect duplicated content. On the other hand, the marketplace will always be better referenced than you, and will take the first place in the search engines. As a result, some marketers prefer to send slightly degraded content to marketplaces and comparison sites, in order to maintain the unrivalled quality of content on their own merchant site. It's up to you to define the role of marketplaces in your e-commerce strategy!

If you'd like to discuss workflow management or webmarketing with our experts, don't hesitate to contact us!