On Monday, Google announced that it has started rolling out a couple new features for Google Shopping with an emphasis on local merchants. These retailers would be local storefronts and local availability for product listing ads on desktop and smartphone searches.
What will happen is when a someone searches for a product on Google, they may now see a product ad listings from a local store, and land on a local storefront page when they click click it. From there, the user will be able to browse the local store’s inventory and purchase directly from them.
“Local availability for Product Listing Ads and the local storefront are based on a local product feed managed through Google Merchant Center, which allows retailers to provide users with up-to-date, item-level price and availability information for each physical store,” says Google Shopping senior product manager Paul Bankhead.” If retailers choose to participate they will pay for clicks on the Product Listing Ad to the local storefront on a cost-per-click basis. Every click and interaction on the local storefront are free.
Local features will help retailers leverage the scale of Google Shopping to market items sold in their physical stores. Currently this beta program is available to a limited set of US retailers, and and will become more widely available in the coming months.”
Local merchants who wish to participate in the new features are encouraged to fill out a form that Windy City Strategies would be able to provide to customers.
Contact Windy City Strategies for more information about Local Product Ad Listings and to become one of the few retailers available to participate in this new program.
By Alisha Lowans