Google Shopping Changing Online Retail Game

By this fall, you can officially say good-bye to Google Product Search and hello to Google Shopping.  The new name brings with it a particularly noticeable change, Product Listing Ads.  Simply put, merchants will now have to pay to be listed on Google Shopping.  

It’s not all bad news.  Having to pay your way in could actually open the door for small businesses to compete with the large online retailers like Amazon that previously dominated the market.  If small business owners are discerning about where they spend their ad budget, they could see unprecedented returns.  

Google Shopping, along with the already included in searches Adwords, will also support images to help attract potential customers.  This, however, means that about two-thirds of Google’s search results pages will be filled with paid content designed to steer users away from the organic search results.  

For business owners counting on users to find their way to their site through Google, this new shift in online retail could affect their bottom line.  Could it be time to look into Bing?  

Ariel Rosenstein has more in her article on MultiChannel Merchant.