Latest update: September 2023 | by Lili

 

What is Google Shopping?

 

Table of contents

• How does it work
• Selling on Google Shopping
• Where is it available
• IP rights on Google Shopping
• Online brand protection on Google Shopping

 

Google Shopping started out in 2002 under the name Froogle. The service back then was a simple price comparison tool, helping consumers find the best deals for various products.

 

In 2007, Froogle introduced the option to buy products on the platform and was renamed Google Product Searches. Up to 2012, the service was free for merchants; only those buying ads on the platform had to pay a fee.

 

That all changed in 2012 when Google Product Searches became Google Shopping, and the platform started to charge merchants for displaying their listings.

 

Features introduced in 2019, like instant purchases, local searches and recommendations allowed Google Shopping to enter the major league of e-Commerce.

 

At the start of the coronavirus pandemic, Google reintroduced free product listings in 2020 to help struggling small businesses attract more customers. The feature is a popular way for merchants to get their product listings discovered as cost-effectively as possible.

 

Today, there are 1.2 billion searches on Google Shopping per month and in the US alone, 2 billion product listings are offered on the platform. 

 
How does it work

Consumers wishing to give Google Shopping a go can click on the “Shopping” tab right on top of their search results.

 

 

Screenshot of random search results on google.com
 

 

Or, if you want a more classic marketplace experience from the start, you can visit shopping.google.com and you’ll land right away on the platform.

 

 

Screenshot of shopping.google.com
 

 

With a search bar on top and product listings on the bottom, the site looks like a cleaner version of well-known marketplaces like Amazon or eBay.

 

Since we’re talking about Google, the most used search engine in the world, it comes as no surprise that shoppers can enjoy (or be alarmed by) a highly personalised shopping experience. Google knows what you’ve been searching for, so you can expect products corresponding to your recent searches appearing on Google Shopping, even if you left the shopping search bar bare for a moment.

 

Clicking on a product will take you to a listing with more information, including price as well as the name and website of the shop where you can actually buy it.

 

 

Screenshot of a random product listing on shopping.google.com

 
Selling on Google Shopping

Google Merchant Centre assists brands and sellers with uploading their store information and product listings on Google Shopping. The process is easy and straightforward: sellers have to create an account on Merchant Centre, link it to their online store and upload product listings.

 

Then, sellers have an enormous array of features at their fingertips to help drive traffic to their store. Google Ads, analytics, promotion options, Performance Max campaigns and many more perks are available for merchants to pick and choose from.

 

The benefits of Google Shopping are obvious. Since the overwhelming majority (85%!) of consumers use Google to find information, it’s the best place to display product listings related to that information.

 

However, please note that you’re not the only brand who has figured this out. Competition for the attention of Google users is enormous, which is why Google Shopping only helps your brand if you use it carefully and smartly. Shoving random listings at people doesn’t work; base your Google ads and product listings on thorough research and careful analytics.

 
Where is it available

While at this point Google Shopping is available in 94 countries, various features are not the same in certain regions of the world. 

 

New territories added to Google Shopping, like Tunisia, Sri Lanka and Ukraine are called beta countries, and several features are not available or work differently in those markets.

 
IP rights on Google Shopping

Google Shopping has a policy against IP infringements on its platform. However, just like we’ve seen with Google Ads, such policies only work as long as Google receives a notification of IP infringing content on the platform.

 

And that’s exactly what fraudsters are counting upon. With the vast and wide-reaching presence of Google, sellers infringing on your IP rights hope you won’t notice them and they can continue making money off your brand’s rights and reputation for a long time.

 

That’s not an unreasonable thought - after all, who has the time and resources to comb Google Shopping for infringing listings?

 

Well, globaleyez does.

 
Online brand protection on Google Shopping

Our marketplace monitoring service looks for IP infringing product listings on over 150 online marketplaces worldwide. globaleyez’s own software tool, traxster crawls your chosen marketplaces, detecting potentially unauthorised listings. Thanks to traxster’s built-in filters, we can narrow down the results and even exclude authorised listings from the search.

 

Since Google Shopping is a special marketplace linking to single webshops and other marketplaces, we recommend a round of domain monitoring as well. This service detects infringing content in domain names, meta descriptions, keywords and even html text.

 

Considering Google’s varied marketing services, image monitoring is essential for finding further unauthorised content and connecting the dots between certain product listings and seemingly unrelated fraudulent webshops. Our image monitoring service detects IP infringing imagery on social media, webshops, marketplaces and the internet at large.

 

Finally, we’re happy to enforce your rights and demand the takedown of any infringing content from Google Shopping and anywhere else on the internet. That includes pictures, product listings, ads, websites, you name it.

 

Contact us today to learn more about our services and how we can protect your IP rights on Google Shopping and everywhere else both on- and offline.