If you have an online store that sells and ships products, then you already qualify to sell on the Google Merchant (Shopping) platform. This platform encompasses the following Google properties: Google Merchant, Google Shopping, Google Ads, Google Maps/Places, YouTube, and Images. All these are combined to give Google customers a environment to search for products while immersing them in a content rich experience. In short, if you need to be selling your products here.

But before we proceed let’s clarify the names for those who may be new to the platform. Google Shopping is the customer facing part of this platform, this is where customers view ads on Google and can view the shopping platform much like an ecommerce store. The merchant facing part of this platform is called Google Merchant, this is where merchants can interact with the Google Shopping platform by creating their merchant account and adding products from their ecommerce store. As we dive into this exciting Google platform, we will look at both Google Shopping and Google Merchant.

What Makes Google Merchant Important

Google Shopping is a relatively new platform that Google introduced with little fanfare. The platform was at first clunky and unimpressive for advertisers already making sales with Google text and Google display ads. As we mentioned, this was not an impressive platform back then, but it most certainly is impressive today. Google Shopping today is an awesome place to promote your products, this is because your ads now remain at the top of the search results page (scrolling left) and sharing the same space with your competitors. No more paying for text ads that show at the bottom of the page, Google Shopping ads are always grouped so your ads are never left orphaned at the bottom of the page where few ever click.

The next reason why Google Shopping is so important to ecommerce merchants, is because of its competitive aspect. Now smaller less competitive merchants can compete head-to-head with big box merchants, this makes customers happy because they can finally see all sellers in a category in the same space.