Buy On Google: The Basics
What is Buy on Google? To answer that question, you need to first understand the current state of internet shopping. Online, it seems like there are a million ways to find and purchase products. Not only do people shop directly from their favorite retailers websites, but online marketplaces like Alibaba, Amazon, and eBay have become the powerhouses of e-commerce, with Amazon alone having over150 million Prime subscribers.
The popularity of shopping online is no surprise, and its also unsurprising that fellow tech giant Google has a goal to stake out their own share of the e-commerce market. Google has tried several attempts over the years with programs like Google Express and the Purchases On Google program commonly referred to at the time as the Google Buy Button.
This program is not an attempt to create a Google Marketplace. Buy On Google is a little different as it removes the need for consumers to go to a specific website to buy a product. Instead, a buy option will come up when users search for products in Googles Shopping category. Unlike the typical marketplace model, Google does not currently take any commission fees.
Not only will Buy On Google eliminate the need for Google users to visit individual sites and sort through a websites offerings, but it could also allow product distributors to reach customers more easily. Time will tell how the specifics play out, or whether people will even use Buy On Google, but it definitely signifies that Google is trying to involve themselves more actively in the ever-growing field of e-commerce.
How Do You Use Buy On Google?
Its easy to tell Google wanted their new marketplace to feel like a natural addition to the Shopping side of their search engine, and they did quite a good job with its design.
Using Buy On Google as a customer is as simple as searching for a product in Googles shopping section. When the product shows up, customers will see an option to checkout from Google. When this is clicked, itll bring the customer to a page where theyll enter their financial and shipping information the rest is self-explanatory.
Setting Up Google Merchant Center
For merchants who wish to sell on Google, setting up your business is a similarly easy experience.
- First, you need to sign up for Googles Merchant Center, which is a pretty self-explanatory process.
- Once youre signed up, youll need to detail your business information, which includes what kind of business or site you run, what sort of products youll be selling, intended age ranges of your products, your customer service email address, and more.
- Add your products, including product descriptions.
- Set up your taxing and shipping policies.
- Create customer return policies and the like.
- Include information regarding your payment service provider.
Opt Your Product In To Buy On Google
Once you have completed the setup in Google Merchant Center, you must let Google know youre interested in participating in the Buy On Google program. Under the Growth > Manage Programs you can find the option to complete an interest form.
The form will inquire about the business, payment solutions, and customer support tools your website uses. One thing to note is the Buy On Google program only supports PayPal and Shopify Payments at the moment.
This is the gist of getting set up your business with Googles new marketplace. Its very simple and accessible, much like every site seems to be nowadays. It will be interesting to see how special additions to the Merchant Center play out. Currently, businesses have the option of setting up a promotions feed for specific products, as well as bolstering their brand by highlighting their branding assets with Buy On Google.
Whether these additions will enable merchants to distinguish themselves from similar brands on Buy On Google has yet to be determined, but its an important question to ask. As Google further simplifies the online shopping experience, how much benefit will this bring to merchants? Lets talk about it.
What Are the Benefits of Buy On Google?
Customer Benefits
For customers, the benefits of Buy On Google are pretty self-explanatory. More and more third-party, counterfeit sellers are making their way into Amazon and Alibaba, effectively flooding the search results users have to sort through to find legitimate products. Language barriers lead to product confusion, inane product names, and product descriptions filled with awkward language and rudimentary grammatical mistakes.
With Buy On Google, it seems Google is trying to streamline the shopping experience for customers as much as possible by eliminating the need for consumers to visit websites and compare benefits and prices through extensive (and sometimes excessive) research but whether this will help consumers deal with the problems plaguing the e-commerce marketplace remains to be seen.
Merchant Benefits
For merchants, the benefits of Buy On Google are a little more cut and dry. Integrating Buy On Google with the search engines other business tools can help companies establish their audiences and build online marketing campaigns based on the results. Merchants will presumably be on an even playing field with Buy On Google, which will likely highlight results that are deemed to be the most relevant and as Google has demonstrated over the years, its very difficult for scammers and snake oil salesmen to trick Googles algorithm for determining which search results are displayed first. Hopefully, the same can be said for business on Buy On Google.
Commission Free For Sellers
One of the big benefits, and more recent developments, is the removal of commission fees for sellers that make use of Buy On Googles checkout process, which means sellers will be able to utilize this quick and simple checkout tool without having to shell out any of their profits to Google. Another benefit worth mentioning is the fact that its free for businesses to list their products on Google Shopping. Admittedly, this has existed for some time, but its still a major benefit for sellers eyeing Google as their next market.
So far, its hard to tell how much of an effect Googles addition to the e-commerce market will have on things. One key thing to focus on over the next few months is Buy On Googles performance for mobile users. Mobile shopping is one of the most-utilized ways consumers buy their products these days, and it would seem that its essential for Googles project to function smoothly on mobile devices to rival Amazons 150 million mobile users.
Getting Assistance with Buy On Google
If setting up a product feed for Google Merchant Center and managing your Google Shopping advertising strategies sounds too overwhelming, dont worry. The experts at OperationROI have been submitting product feeds to Google since back in the days of Froogle. Our Google PPC experts have years of experience marketing products on Google. To learn more about our Google Shopping Management or have us review your account please contact us today!
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