Selling Your Products on Google Shopping

 How do you sell on Google Shopping?

While there are third-party platforms that help eCommerce businesses automate the Google Shopping experience, many businesses still choose to go the manual route (by uploading ads and free product feeds themselves).

Getting started

Sign in to the Google Merchant Center and add products to Google Shopping

As mentioned earlier, if you are not already a Merchant Center member, you'll need to sign up before you can take advantage of the full Google Shopping experience.

How to sell on Google Shopping

First, you need a legitimate Google account (like Gmail).

Then, you'll need to enter your business information. Google collects this information to determine what your business offers and if you are a suitable candidate for the platform.

You will need to enter details such as the name of your website, the display name of your business, and the countries in which you operate. The company name you choose becomes the username for your merchant account.

After that, Google will ask you to send a file to your website's server to confirm that you are the owner of the website.

After that, you will be able to log into your Merchant Center account and manage your listings (which we will discuss in the next section).

Buying ads

In the past, Google Shopping listings were paid-only. With the April 2020 changes, businesses in the US will have the option to list products for free, and the rest of the world will soon follow

Paid ads will now appear at the top and bottom of the page alongside organic results. These will include what Google calls "rich product information," such as a product's price, your company's name, and a thumbnail.

To create a paid campaign, you'll need to link a Google Ads account to your Merchant Center. Google provides you with information on how to do this depending on your situation.

Once you have an account, you can "create a campaign".

Click on the campaign and link your Google Ads to your Merchant Center account. Then choose the type of campaign you want to launch. Click "Store" and then proceed to create ads as usual.

How to create a Google Shopping feed?

Your Google Shopping feed is simply the data that Google uses to display comprehensive information about your products. The search engine giant does not manually create product listings on behalf of retailers. Instead, it uses algorithms to pull data from your website and then use it in the Shopping results.

It is therefore important that eCommerce businesses optimize their website.

Google Shopping is primarily a visual experience. Your priority should therefore be to provide high quality images. Google may reject campaigns if you provide low resolution photos. For more information, see the company's product image guidelines.

Once you have optimized the product images and text, it's time to compile all the material and submit it to your product data feed. This is where you share your products with Google in a standardized format so that Google can use the information to display your products in Shopping results.

In the Merchant Center, go to Products and then click Product Feeds. Click the round, blue "Plus" icon to open a page where you can enter basic information. Here, you'll enter things like your country and language, as well as the demographics you want your products to display by when they go online.

How to create a Google Shopping feed

In the next section, you'll enter the product information and how you want Google Shopping to display it. You can upload all your products manually, but if you have a large inventory, this is impractical. Therefore, Google gives you the option to enter the data using Google Sheets. You will need to customize the document so that it meets Merchant Center guidelines (or use the template provided). But once you do that, updating your product inventory becomes much easier.