Commerce Blog
The official blog for the latest news from Google Commerce
Google Shopping and SMBs: What you need to know
7/10/12
We’re excited to launch a series of
Hangouts on Air
to help guide small and medium sized businesses through the
transition to Google Shopping
. This series of Hangouts will guide you through an introduction to Google Shopping--giving you all the information you need to list your products on Google Shopping:
Session 1: Google Shopping Introduction and Overview:
Friday, July 13th - 9:30am PDT
Session 2: Introduction to Merchant Center:
Tuesday, July 17th - 9:30am PDT
Session 3: Creating and Optimizing Your Product Listing Ads for Google Shopping:
Friday July, 20th - 9:30am PDT
Session 4: Trusted Stores Overview and Setup:
Monday, July 23rd - 10:30am PDT
To tune into this Hangout On Air:
1) Visit the
Google Ads Google+ Page
at 9:30am PDT / 12:30pm EDT.
2) Look for the stream post (see image below for what it will look like), and click to tune in. Be sure you’re signed into Google+!
We look forward to seeing you there, but if you cannot join us, we’ll be posting each session to this blog and the
Google Business YouTube channel
.
Posted by Jon Venverloh, Senior Manager, Google Shopping
Commerce API World Tour
12/19/11
Over the past few months, the
Google Commerce Developer
team has been very busy spreading the word about Google’s
In-App Payments
and Shopping APIs for
Search
and
Content
. In addition to meeting developers at events in the United States, we had the opportunity to engage with developer communities around the world.
We started our world tour in Japan at
Google Developer Day, Tokyo
. We continued globetrotting to Australia for
GDD Sydney
, then to Spain for
Google DevFest, Barcelona
and finished in Germany with events at the
Berlin GTUG
and
GDD Berlin
.
Peng Ying
and
Mihai Ionescu
presented
distribution and monetization strategies
for web applications to developers in Tokyo, Sydney and Berlin while
Danny Hermes
spoke about
using the Google Shopping APIs
in Barcelona.
We love meeting and talking to developers, and we’re looking forward to continuing to connect with developer communities worldwide. With the
recent international expansion of In-App Payments
, we’ll be
hosting a hangout on Google+
tomorrow December 20th at 11AM PST to answer monetization questions.
For future events, keep an eye on this blog, our
social media
channels and the
Google Developers events page
, or join a
Google Technology User Group
.
Posted by Mihai Ionescu, Commerce Developer Advocate
Trends from the biggest shopping days of the year
12/2/11
(Cross-posted on the
Google Retail Blog
)
With the biggest shopping weekend of the year behind us here in the U.S., we decided to take a step back, crunch the numbers and look at how people shopped during the extravaganza that spans Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Using Insights for Search and data from Google’s annual consumer intentions shopping study, conducted with our research partner OTX, we identified two stand-out trends this year. One, shoppers are searching more for deals online than ever before and they’re heavily relying on their mobile device as an on-the-go, personal shopping assistant. Here’s what we learned from the data:
It’s all about saving money and time
The search trends clearly showed consumers are more aware of and interested in special deals available over the holiday shopping weekend. Searches for [
black friday deals
] were up by 30% from last year, and searches for [
cyber monday sales
] and [
cyber monday coupons
] grew 15% year over year. Further, on Black Friday, half of the
top 20 rising searches
on Google involved retailers or deals.
Closing out the long weekend, [
cyber monday deals 2011
] made the top five growing search term on Cyber Monday. In addition, searches for [
black midnight
] jumped by over 30% over last year, indicating shoppers were planning to hit the stores when retailers opened their doors at 12am on Black Friday.
Most interesting to us was the growth in queries indicating that shoppers were using the web to plan out their trips to the store. Searches for [
black friday store map
] were conducted more than twice as often this year as in 2010, and searches for [
black friday store hours
] were up over 40% for the same time period.
Mobile matters
More and more shoppers are reaching for their phones to compare prices, look for store locations and inventory and find deals. In fact, searches for [
mobile coupons
] were up 90% over last year’s volume and mobile search volume for retail-related searches on Black Friday this year was up 200% over Black Friday last year.
According to our study, 55% of participants said they will use their smartphone’s location features on some or most shopping trips, while 47% will use a smartphone to compare prices and 42% will use their phone to search for the nearest store.
They might not fit in your pocket, but tablets are a rising device for getting some serious shopping done: 47% of study participants said they use their tablets to search for coupons or rebates and 44% use them to make purchases.
What’s hot this holiday season
It’s always fun to take a look at the most popular product searches just after Thanksgiving and try to predict what this year’s Tickle Me Elmo will be.
While netbooks emerged as a popular product last holiday season, this year’s data shows tablets overtaking netbooks in search popularity.
Also, the most popular products searched for on
Google Product Search
over the long weekend was the
Leapfrog LeapPad Explorer
. Other top products in their categories include:
Kitchen Appliance:
Keurig Special Edition B60 coffee maker
Board game:
Angry Birds Knock on Wood game
Video game:
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
Doll:
Lalaloopsy Silly Hair doll - Jewel Sparkles
Digital camera:
Canon EOS Rebel T3i digital SLR Camera
Finally, our survey found that 43% of consumers embraced the craziness of the Black Friday weekend and as of Cyber Monday, had finished the majority of their holiday shopping. But don’t panic if you’re part of the 57% majority. If last year’s trends hold true for 2011, we’ll see a big spike in shopping traffic in mid-December, when procrastinators like myself rush to get their shopping done.
Posted by Sameer Samat, VP of Product Management, Google
Upcoming Developer Events
10/26/11
Online commerce continues to see explosive growth rates around the world. At the same time, new technologies make the online shopping experience easier for both merchants and shoppers. Over the next month, the Google Commerce Developer Relations team will be travelling to Japan, Australia, Spain and Germany to meet with developers and talk about the latest developments in online commerce.
We'll cover various topics from monetizing web apps and games with
Google In-App Payments
and
AdSense Media Ads
, to using the Google Shopping APIs (
Search
and
Content
) to build innovative applications. If you haven’t registered yet, here is the complete list of locations and dates:
Google Developer Day, Tokyo
- November 1, 2011
Google Developer Day, Sydney
- November 8, 2011
Google DevFest, Barcelona
- November 8, 2011
Google Developer Day, Berlin
- November 19, 2011
We’re looking forward to talking to you at one of the developer events.
Posted by Mihai Ionescu, Commerce Developer Advocate
Implementing the new Google Product Search feed specification
10/24/11
On September 22, the new
Google Product Search
feed specification that we
announced in July
went into effect. Since then, we’ve been gradually enforcing the new requirements by implementing additional checks over time in order to ensure a smooth roll out and give our merchants more time to react to errors and data problems.
We’re well on our way toward implementing all compliance checks, including those for Google Product Category, Tax & Shipping, and Variant attributes. Here are a few ways that you can make sure your product data feed is in good shape:
1. Review the information on the “Data Quality” tab in
Google Merchant Center
to see data quality errors. We recently changed this tab to give you a clearer view of the status of your items and to make it easier to see which errors are most critical. Where possible, we’ve also provided actionable advice and feedback on how to fix errors.
2. Also be sure to also check the “Data Feeds” tab in your Merchant Center account. This is where you’ll find error reports for feed-level issues (e.g. errors in syntax of submitted attributes).
3. Use the “New Test Data Feed” functionality (on the Data Feed tab) to submit a new test feed. This test mechanism also allows you to download a full feed processing report and get detailed insights into potential issues with your feed. Note that this functionality is currently only available for test feeds.
As we head into the holiday season, we want to thank our merchants for investing in making the necessary changes to their feeds and sending high-quality product data. We’re committed to maintaining a high bar for data quality and are working hard to make Google Product Search even better in the coming months.
Happy Shopping!
Posted by Mayuresh Saoji, Senior Product Manager, Google Product Search team
Join us for a webinar on the Content API for Shopping
10/13/11
Are you an internet retailer currently submitting products to Google Product Search? Join us for a free webinar on “
Keeping your product data fresh using Google’s Content API for Shopping
”, on
October 26, 2011
at
10AM PT
. This webinar is for retailers who use
Google Merchant Center
and are looking for a more scalable, flexible way to update their product data. If you are a decision maker for your site’s marketing and operations, then this webinar is for you.
In this 60 minute session, you’ll learn about:
Google Shopping data freshness policy
The
Content API for Shopping
Analytics and reports on API usage
Available support for the API
Using Merchant Center vs. using the API: We’ll walk through the advantages and disadvantages of each
Google Product Search team members will be on hand for Q&A.
Register now
for the webinar, and you can also:
Hope to see you at the webinar.
Posted by Amanda Surya, Commerce Developer Relations Team
Enhancing the shopping experience on Google Product Search
9/22/11
Shortly after joining Google from Like.com, my team and I developed and
launched Boutiques
-- a fashion website offering women new ways to browse and shop for apparel. Today, we’re taking the features that shoppers absolutely love from Boutiques and incorporating them into Google Product Search -- so millions of people can use them every day. This is the first in a series of improvements we’re making to
Google Product Search
leveraging the computer vision and machine learning technology developed by the team we affectionately call our fashion and computer nerds. We hope you’ll enjoy what’s new today, and what’s around the corner for the upcoming holiday season.
A Redesigned Homepage
The first thing you’ll probably notice is our new
homepage
. This new look and feel is designed to inspire and facilitate easy, enjoyable browsing and shopping.
Better Ways to Shop, Starting with Dresses
By increasing the size of each image, simplifying much of the text around the images, and lightening the text color, we’ve emphasized the more visual aspects of apparel shopping. We’ve also integrated the most popular search refinements from Boutiques. Using the same innovative machine learning and computer vision technologies we developed for Boutiques, you can now browse dress collections that match the color, silhouette and genre you desire.
Explore visually similar styles
And because we think browsing and discovering new items is what makes shopping fun, we’ve added a feature to Product Search that makes it easy to do just that. Let’s say a particular dress catches your eye. Now, you can explore similar styles and discover new designers by clicking on that dress and viewing dozens of visually similar ones. We think you’ll find this fun --and addictive!-- and we hope it brings that element of surprise and discovery we all love with brick-and-mortar shopping to the online shopping experience.
An update on Boutiques.com and related properties
As we continue to integrate technology and lessons learned from Boutiques.com into Google Product Search, we will be redirecting shoppers from Boutiques.com to Google Product Search. The former
Like.com
team, alongside the Google Product Search team, will drive new ideas for apparel shopping through one unified product. The team is excited to be a part of the shopping experience on Google and have our work displayed to millions of users every day.
If you’re a user of Boutiques.com and other Like.com websites, you’ll soon receive an email with instructions for saving your data before those websites are transitioned on October 14. If you have any questions please email us at boutiques-feedback@google.com.
Like other
teams
that
have
joined
Google, we’re thrilled with the opportunity to showcase our experience and technology to all of Google’s shoppers.
Burak Gokturk, Like.com Co-Founder and member of the Google Commerce team
Google Content API for Shopping adds more metrics for merchants
9/7/11
We are happy to announce that the
Google Content API for Shopping
, which is used to upload product data to Google, now exposes performance (click) data. This data informs merchants how often their products have been clicked on
Google Shopping
within any given time period.
The data is easy to grab by adding URL parameters to product retrieval requests, specifying the start and end dates for which performance data is required. The returned product data contains new elements with the number of clicks per day for each product, for example:
We hope this feature helps merchants track these important metrics. For more information, please visit the
documentation
, and if you have any questions, please raise them in the
developer forum
.
Posted by Thomas Kotzmann, Technical Lead, Content API for Shopping
The +1 button for retailers
8/25/11
(Cross-posted on the
Google Retail
and
Google Merchant
blogs)
The people we know and trust have a big influence on our purchase decisions. I bought the chef’s knife I use every day on the recommendation of my friend Eliot, who more than knows his way around the kitchen. And I always try to bring my friend Brian along when I’m music shopping, since he has a knack for pointing out great albums I’ve never heard of.
We’re excited about the
+1 button
because it brings these personal recommendations to a place where many purchase decisions start -- the Google search results page.
Adding +1 buttons to your product pages makes it easy for your customers to recommend the products they love on your site with a single click. And thanks to
recent improvements to the +1 button
, they can take the conversation even further by sharing your products right away on Google+.
From there, +1 annotations can help your products stand out. Potential customers might see +1’s from their friends and contacts on your search ads, your organic Google Search results, or even on your page itself.
We’ve worked with
Bazaarvoice
and
PowerReviews
to make it even easier to get the +1 button on your pages. Both companies have extensive experience in social commerce, and can help you develop the right strategy for implementing +1 buttons on your site.
Looking for a couple examples of retailers using +1 to help their products stand out on Google search?
Jockey
(working with PowerReviews) and
Golfsmith
(working with Bazaarvoice) have already added +1 buttons to the product pages on their sites.
If you’d prefer to add the +1 button to pages yourself, it’s easy to do. Just install a
small snippet of code
wherever you want the +1 button to appear. For advanced implementation FAQs and documentation, you can visit the
+1 button page on Google Code
.
As more retailers add +1 buttons to their sites, we’re excited about how much more helpful search results will get. The next time I need a new frying pan, I won’t need to call Eliot up -- his recommendation will be right there waiting for me.
Posted by Brian Lam, Strategic Partner Manager
Google Offers beta launching in New York City and the Bay Area
7/12/11
(Cross-posted on the
Official Google Blog
)
Following our first launch of Google Offers beta in
Portland last month
, we’re bringing great deals to the Big Apple and the Bay Area starting today. Subscribers who sign up at
www.google.com/offers
or via the new “Today’s Offer” tab in
Google Shopper 2.0
for Android will start receiving emails with local offers in New York and the San Francisco Bay Area today.
We’re kicking off our bi-coastal rollout with offers from some local favorites:
New Yorkers can mix salty and sweet with Belgian fries and mango chutney at
Pommes Frites
, savor chocolate molten cake with a glass of Malbec at
Ayza Wine and Chocolate Bar
or sample a delectable red velvet mini cupcake at
Tonnie’s Minis
in Harlem.
In the San Francisco Bay Area, fresh donuts and apple fritters are served up 24/7 at
Bob’s Donut & Pastry Shop
on Polk Street. You can also get a taste of Provence at the
Le Bateau Ivre Restaurant
in Berkeley.
We caught up with the small business owners of
New York Dog Spa & Hotel
,
Yoshi’s Jazz Club in Oakland
and
San Francisco
plus
Toy Boat Dessert Cafe
in San Francisco to learn more about them and why they’re running Google Offers in the coming weeks.
Also starting later today, you can buy, view and redeem a Google Offer of the day with
Google Shopper 2.0
for Android. Once you’ve bought or saved an offer, it will appear in the My Offers tab in both the Shopper app and when you visit
www.google.com/offers
. Shopper will also connect you to all kinds of deals that are near you in the Nearby Offers tab, so wherever you are, you can still get great offers from Google even if you haven’t signed up for the daily deals in Portland, New York and the San Francisco Bay Area.
This is all just the beginning. Whether it’s
touring Napa wineries
, grabbing a slice of deep dish pizza in
San Francisco
or
Albany, CA
or catching an
improv show in New York
, stay tuned for deals from the best these areas have to offer.
Next up, we’ll be heading to Austin, Boston, Denver, Seattle and Washington, D.C. Point your browser to
www.google.com/offers
to sign up ahead of time so you don’t miss the sweet deals when we launch in these cities.
Posted by Eric Rosenblum, Product Management Director, Google Offers
Tips to help you shop safely online
6/28/11
(Cross-posted on the
Google Public Policy Blog
)
Ten years ago, the vast majority of Internet users said they wouldn't use the Internet for any financial transactions. Today, more than
70 percent
of Internet users access their credit card account via the Internet, and worldwide e-commerce spending is expected to exceed $1 trillion by 2013. And it makes sense why – the Internet provides not only vast product and service information, but also the opportunity to buy those goods right away.
For consumers and businesses to continue to benefit from online commerce, it’s important to keep it safe and secure. That’s why today we’ve posted a new
Shopping Safety Tips
page. Just as when you’re shopping offline, it’s vital to be a careful and informed buyer on the web.
We work hard to prevent fraud across our services and keep consumers safe online, including recent improvements to
keep counterfeits out of ads
. However, no individual or company can completely stop these activities on their own. Your help in reporting catch abuse and fraud are critical, and this page also provides links to where you can help us by reporting violations of our policies.
Posted by Derek Slater, Policy Manager
Introducing +1 on Google Product Search
6/3/11
This summer, we’ll be celebrating my mom’s 60th birthday by taking her on an African safari, fulfilling one of her lifelong dreams. She’ll need a new camera for the trip, and since I know very little about cameras, the first person I’ll turn to is my friend Andrew, an avid photographer. I trust that he knows his stuff and will make a good recommendation.
When it comes to making important purchases, friends are often the first people we reach out to for advice. That’s why, starting today, we’re showing the +1 button on
Google Product Search
-- so you can +1 to make product recommendations and see which products your friends and contacts have recommended. By adding +1 to Google Product Search, we hope to make it even easier to make informed purchase decisions.
Here’s a snapshot of what I might see when I search for ‘digital cameras’ on Google Product Search. As you can see, Andrew has already +1’d the Canon EOS Rebel.
If I click on the camera, I’ll end up on the product page, where I can see the total number of people who have recommended this particular camera.
Users in the US with their language set to English will automatically begin seeing +1 on Google Product Search soon. To view recommendations from your friends and contacts in Google Product Search, make sure you’re signed into your
Google Account
.
While this camera is a bit more than I was planning to spend, my mom’s worth it and we’ll enjoy her photos for years to come. If she likes it as much as I think she will, you’ll know by our +1’s.
Posted by Lisa Coffey, Google Shopping Team
Google I/O Commerce Recap
6/2/11
With
Google I/O 2011
still fresh in our minds, we want to thank everyone who joined us for the Commerce track sessions at the Moscone Center in San Francisco or watched the sessions online from around the world.
This was the first time that Google I/O had an entire track devoted to Commerce and we are very pleased by the enthusiastic response from the developer community. The presentations covered a wide range of monetization topics and e-commerce tools from
Google Checkout
and a
developer preview of In-App Payments for the web
to Shopping APIs for
content
and
search
,
eBooks
and
solutions for publishers who choose to charge
.
All the sessions were recorded and are now available to watch on YouTube. If you weren't able to attend I/O, missed one of these great sessions or want to review a session again, please follow the links below for videos and session content:
Google Checkout: A Foundation For Payments
Introducing In-App Payments for the Web
Introduction to Google Shopping APIs
Google One Pass: A simple, flexible, Web API for Publishers
Integrating to eBooks: APIs to Sell and Read eBooks for Affiliates, Retailers and Device Makers
And of course, we have also had several exciting new Google Commerce product announcements since I/O:
Google Offers beta
Google Wallet
Developer API of Google In-App Payments for the web
Google Books API now in Code Labs
We’re just getting started with many of these Commerce developer products, so stay tuned and keep following us
@GoogCommerceDev
for more news and announcements.
Posted by Mihai Ionescu, Commerce Developer Advocate
Shopping, saving and sharing on the Google Commerce Blog
5/25/11
Today we’re launching the
Google Commerce Blog
to bring you news, trends and ideas about shopping, retailing and payments from across Google and beyond.
Google commerce products help buyers easily find the things they're looking for no matter where they are. They also help retailers attract and retain customers. For example, retailers can list their items for free in
Google Product Search
and reach buyers right when they’re searching for that product.
Google Shopper
,
Google Maps
,
Google Places
and
Boutiques.com
aim to make savvy shopping easier and faster. And with
Google Checkout
, you can buy online quickly, safely and conveniently.
Commerce isn’t just about physical goods. Content providers like newspaper, book and magazine publishers and game developers can also sell their digital wares with a single sign-on using
Google One Pass
,
In-App Payments
or
Google eBooks
. Readers and players can access their paid content from any device, on the desktop, tablet, or mobile phones because it is stored in the cloud.
To share updates about these products and more, and to help developers better monetize their businesses, we recently hosted the first
Commerce track
at
Google I/O
featuring sessions from five commerce product areas. We want to keep that conversation going, and give you a window into what's new year-round.
Follow this blog for ways to make shopping, buying and selling in-the-cloud and on-the-go better.
Posted by Stephanie Tilenius, Vice President of Commerce
Labels
+1
2
1-800-flowers.com
1
8Moms
1
American Meadows
1
android
3
APDailyDeals
1
aquarium
1
ATT Interactive
1
ATT Performing Arts Center
1
austin
2
Basketball
1
berkeley
1
Boingo
1
Boingo Hotzones
1
books
1
boston
2
Boston.com
1
Broadway
1
Brownies
1
Charlotte
1
checkout
4
Chico’s
1
chocolate
1
CityLikes
1
cnn heroes
1
Commerce Blog
216
commerce search
1
Content API for Shopping
1
coupons
3
d.c.
1
daily deals
1
DailyDeals.com
1
Dallas
2
deals
10
Dealster
1
denver
1
discounts
4
DoubleTakeDeals
1
Drugstore.com
1
Duane Reade
1
Earth Day
1
ebooks
2
edible excursions
1
Eversave
1
Express
1
Fandango
1
Fat Witch Bakery
1
father's day
1
flowers
1
free wi-fi
1
frysmith
1
Galaxy Nexus
1
Game Developers Conference
1
gap
1
Gardening
1
GDC
1
google
4
Google Account
1
google catalogs
1
Google Commerce Search
1
Google Maps for Android
1
google merchant center
1
google offers
35
Google Play
1
Google Product Search
4
Google Product Search Merchants
2
Google Shopping
6
google wallet
22
google wallet for digital goods
1
gourmet ghetto
1
grill 'em all
1
Guitar Center
1
HAIR
1
Half Off Depot
1
holiday deals
1
holiday shopping
1
Huskers
1
in-app payments
13
iPhone
1
jewelry
1
Joe's Stone Crab
1
Kansas City
1
kitchen on fire
1
kogi bbq
1
LG Optimus Elite
1
LG Viper 4G LTE
1
Listerine PocketPaks
1
los angeles
1
Louie's Grill and Bar
1
Miami
1
Milwaukee
1
Morgan’s Deals
1
Mother's Day
1
New York City Subway
1
nfc
1
offers
12
OfficeMax
1
Oklahoma City
1
Omaha
1
one pass
1
online shopping
1
Oprah
1
orlando
1
Overstock
1
payments
2
Pinkberry
1
REI
2
restaurants
1
San Antonio
1
save to wallet
1
Savored
1
schemer
1
Search As You Type
1
seattle
1
shopper
2
shopping
14
Signpost
1
soop
1
spice of life
1
Sprint
1
Starbucks
1
Tampa
1
the buttermilk truck
1
the grilled cheese truck
1
Tommy Hilfiger
1
University of Nebraska
1
Urban Dealight
1
Valentine's Day
1
Walgreens
1
Wayfair
1
Weforia
1
Wildflowers
1
zagat
1
Zavers by Google
1
Archive
2016
March
Testing, Testing - One, Two, Hands Free
February
2015
December
September
May
April
March
February
January
2014
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
2013
December
November
October
September
August
July
May
April
March
February
January
2012
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January
2011
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
Feed
Follow @googleexpress
Follow @googlewallet
Follow
Give us feedback in our
Product Forums
.
Follow