Comparison Shopping Engine Spotlight: Google Product Search

Posted by CPC_Andrew on July 1, 2010 in Strategy

Each month CPC Strategy is releasing a merchant-oriented Comparison Shopping Engine (CSE) Spotlight. Today’s spotlight features Google Product Search. We’ll talk about how it operates, and why you should list your products there.

“Google Product Search helps shoppers find and buy products across the web. As a seller, you can submit your products to Google Product Search, allowing shoppers to quickly and easily find your site.” – Google Product Search Welcome Page.

When you search for a specific product or type of product in Google’s search bar, Google will spit back one or multiple product listings from Google Product Search.

For example, if you type in vintage 1950’s t-shirt, the results page will look like this (click to enlarge):

A few things to point out:

There are regular text listings that link to websites.

There is also Shopping results for vintage 1950’s t-shirt section that shows a picture of a shirt and lists three sellers.

The listing with a picture is titled the “OneBox.” This is a premier listing for merchant items. Talking about the Google “OneBox” can easily take up multiple posts of its own, so here’s a link to a great post by Brian Smith at GoogleCommerceGuide.com which talks all about it.

On the picture above there are two links under the Google logo at the top left of the screen. One says everything, which lists a mixture of listings that are most relevant to the consumer’s search. The other says Shopping.

Here’s the display if you click the Shopping link (click to enlarge):

Product pictures are listed with links to merchant sites. Easy shopping for consumers and easy money for you.

Check out how Google Product Search compares to the other CSE’s.

Many comparison shopping engines (CSE’s) charge cost per click rates (CPC) on products that you list on their site. There are times when you’ll wage war with these CSE’s, constantly adjusting bids, cutting products, and tracking important performance information.

Google Product Search allows merchants to list their products for free.

If you consider that 57% of consumers start their shopping with a search engine, it’s essential that you list your products on Google Product Search.

Below are some useful links. Check them out, start listing your products for free. On Thursday 7/8 we’ll be posting merchant best practices with Google Product Search.

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About the Author+Andrew Davis is CPC Strategy's Director of Marketing, an expert in ecommerce marketing strategy, product marketing and all things comparison shopping related. In September 2010, Andrew finished writing the first-ever Merchant Comparison Shopping Handbook which teaches online retailers the most effective way to start and manage their comparison shopping campaigns. Today Andrew spends most of his time consulting medium and large online retailers and online marketing agencies. You can contact Andrew directly at andrew@cpcstrategy.com or via phone at 619-297-3798. See all posts by this author here.