Google is taking a big step in opening up its Shopping search results to unpaid, organic listings.
Previously, e-commerce platforms had to pay for ad placement to have their listings shown on Google Shopping. In a significant change, Google is changing that, by saying the Shopping tab results "will consist primarily of free product listings."
What this means, anyone who operates a website or manages a store on a marketplace platform can list their inventory to Google Shopping without having to pay for anything, although Google still has plans to charge companies for top placement as promoted listings.
The move comes amid the novel 'COVID-19' coronavirus pandemic which causes many brick-and-mortar retailers to have their doors closed to the public.
As merchants put an increased importance on their e-commerce strategy to sustain their businesses, Google simply wants to help them, especially amid this pandemic.
In a blog post written by Bill Ready, the President of Commerce at Google:
"In light of these challenges, we’re advancing our plans to make it free for merchants to sell on Google. Beginning next week, search results on the Google Shopping tab will consist primarily of free listings, helping merchants better connect with consumers, regardless of whether they advertise on Google. With hundreds of millions of shopping searches on Google each day, we know that many retailers have the items people need in stock and ready to ship, but are less discoverable online."
What this means for merchants, having free listings on Google Shopping allow them to reach millions of people who come to Google everyday for their shopping needs.
For buyers, it means more products from more stores, discoverable through the Google Shopping tab. And for advertisers, this means paid campaigns can now be augmented with free listings.
These changes are meant to take affect, initially in the U.S. before the end of April.
"We’re also kicking off a new partnership with PayPal to allow merchants to link their accounts. This will speed up our onboarding process and ensure we’re surfacing the highest quality results for our users. And we’re continuing to work closely with many of our existing partners that help merchants manage their products and inventory, including Shopify, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce, to make digital commerce more accessible for businesses of all sizes."
During the time of crisis, businesses and companies of all sizes are affected in one way or another.
Solutions aren't easy, especially because the economy must go on, people are always in needs but urged to remain indoors and practice social distancing.
With the change, Google hopes to provide "a measure of relief for businesses and lay the groundwork for a healthier retail ecosystem in the future."
“What we’re seeing is that they are many, many retailers and small businesses that stand ready to server shoppers, but don’t yet have a great way to connect with them digitally,” Bill Ready saif. “We think that by doing this, it helps many more shoppers find what they’re looking for, but it also helps bring some quite needed relief to the retail and small business ecosystem.”
Ready said that Google has been working on the changes for quite some time, but the ongoing coronavirus pandemic is pushing the company to accelerate those plans.
After 8 years, Google in providing free listings into its Shopping results should also make it compete better against Amazon, the giant of e-commerce, in product search.