In the fast-paced world of eCommerce, it’s crucial for online stores to adopt effective strategies to reach their target audience and boost sales. One such strategy is listing products in shopping engines. Shopping engines, also known as comparison shopping engines or product listing platforms, allow businesses to showcase their products to a wider audience. In this blog post, I’ll give you ten compelling reasons why, as an online store owner, you should be listing your products in shopping engines, along with how you can do it.
1. Increased Visibility: By listing your products in shopping engines, you significantly increase your visibility among potential customers. These platforms attract millions of shoppers actively looking for products, providing an opportunity to showcase your offerings to a wider audience.
2. Enhanced Brand Exposure: Shopping engines offer an effective way to enhance your brand exposure. When consumers search for products, they are exposed to multiple options from various brands. By listing your products, you can improve brand recognition and establish a strong online presence.
3. Targeted Traffic: Shopping engines help you attract highly targeted traffic. These platforms allow users to search for specific products, which means that the visitors you receive are already interested in purchasing those items. This leads to higher conversion rates and an improved return on investment (ROI).
4. Increased Sales: Listing your products in shopping engines can have a direct impact on your sales. When customers compare prices and features across multiple platforms, they are more likely to make a purchase. By showcasing your products in these platforms, you increase the chances of converting potential customers into actual buyers.
5. Competitive Advantage: In today’s competitive eCommerce landscape, being one step ahead of your competition is crucial. By listing your products in shopping engines, you can gain insights into your competitors’ offerings and pricing strategies. This information allows you to adjust your pricing and marketing tactics accordingly, giving you an edge in the market.
6. Cost-Effective Advertising: Compared to other forms of online advertising, listing your products in shopping engines is often more cost-effective. Instead of paying for impressions or clicks, you typically pay based on the performance of your listings, such as per click or per conversion. This allows you to optimize your budget and achieve a higher return on your advertising investment.
7. Improved SEO and Website Traffic: Listing your products in shopping engines can also indirectly benefit your overall search engine optimization (SEO) efforts. When your products appear in these platforms, they are often indexed by search engines, which can lead to increased organic traffic to your website.
8. Detailed Analytics and Insights: Shopping engines provide detailed analytics and insights about your product listings. You can access information such as click-through rates, conversion rates, and customer demographics. These valuable insights enable you to make data-driven decisions and refine your marketing strategies for better results.
9. Mobile Reach: With the increasing number of users shopping via mobile devices, listing your products in shopping engines allows you to tap into the mobile market. Many shopping engines have dedicated mobile apps or mobile-friendly websites, ensuring that your products are easily accessible to smartphone and tablet users.
10: Quick and Easy Setup: Setting up product listings in shopping engines is typically a straightforward process. Most platforms offer user-friendly interfaces and step-by-step instructions to guide you through the listing process, or you can use a service from a developer like Your Store Wizards to manage your product data feed.
Having Your Products in Google Shopping is a Must
If you’re new to eCommerce or have limited experience with shopping engines, the first shopping engine you need to get your products into is Google Shopping. With its immense reach and popularity, Google Shopping is a must for every eCommerce store. By listing your products on this platform, you can leverage Google’s vast user base and gain exposure to a wide range of potential customers. Google Shopping integrates seamlessly with Google Ads, allowing you to optimize your campaigns and drive targeted traffic to your products.
Google is the world’s most popular search engine, and Google Shopping integrates seamlessly with its search results. When users search for products on Google, relevant product listings appear at the top of the search results page, attracting immediate attention. By having your products listed in Google Shopping, you ensure that your offerings are prominently displayed to millions of potential customers who are actively searching for products like yours. This high visibility translates into increased brand exposure and the opportunity to capture a significant share of the market.
Submitting Your Products to Google Shopping
Submitting a data feed to Google Shopping involves a few steps that you may be able to complete on your own:
1. Prepare Your Product Data: Ensure that your product data is accurate, up to date, and meets Google’s requirements. Your product data should include details such as product title, description, price, availability, and unique identifiers like GTIN (Global Trade Item Number) or MPN (Manufacturer Part Number). Make sure your data adheres to Google’s policies to avoid any potential issues.
2. Create a Google Merchant Center Account: To submit your data feed, you’ll need a Google Merchant Center account. If you don’t already have one, go to https://merchants.google.com and sign up for an account.
3. Set Up Data Feed Specifications: Within your Google Merchant Center account, you’ll need to configure the data feed specifications. This includes defining the format and structure of your product data. Google supports various data feed formats such as XML, CSV, or TXT. Choose the format that best suits your needs and ensure your data is organized according to the specified structure.
4. Upload Your Data Feed: Once your data feed is prepared and saved in the correct format, it’s time to upload it to Google Merchant Center. Sign in to your account and follow the instructions for uploading your feed.
5. Map Your Data Feed Fields: After uploading your data feed, you’ll need to map the fields in your feed to the corresponding attributes in Google. This step ensures that Google understands the meaning of each data field and displays your product information accurately.
6. Review and Troubleshoot: Once your data feed is processed, review any errors or warnings reported by Google Merchant Center. Fix any issues related to missing or incorrect data to ensure that your product listings are displayed correctly. Pay attention to errors in product titles, descriptions, pricing, and availability to avoid potential disapprovals or account suspension.
7. Submit and Monitor: After resolving any errors, submit your data feed for review. Google will then process your feed and verify your product information. This process may take some time, so be patient. While your feed is being processed, monitor the status and performance of your product listings within Google Merchant Center to ensure everything is functioning as expected.
This is Way Too Complicated, Can You Help?
Absolutely! Many store owners find that using a developer like Your Store Wizards to manage their product data feed is much easier than trying to do it themselves. If your eCommerce store is on the BigCommerce, Turbify, or Shopify platform, we offer an affordable way for you to submit your products to Google Shopping and other engines as well. With pricing starting at just $24.95 for a Google Shopping feed, you can put all the setup in our hands and be assured that your feed is submitted and updated on a regular basis.
For more information on product data feeds from Your Store Wizards, contact us, we’re here to help!
Scott Sanfilippo began his eCommerce journey in 1994 by co-founding one of the Internet’s first online retailers, TheFerretStore.com, which was acquired by PetCo in 2006. In 2001, he co-founded the eCommerce design and marketing firm Solid Cactus, which was acquired by web.com in 2009. Today, Scott is the General Manager of Your Store Wizards and lives in Delray Beach, FL. Scott can be contacted at scott@yourstorewizards.com.