Google Shopping UK Changes – February 2013

Hi. My name’s Alex, and I’m one of the New Media Account Managers here at SEO Traffic Lab. Today, I’m looking forward to speaking to you about some of the impending UK changes to Google shopping. We’re going to talk about; what they are, why they matter to you if you’re an E-commerce store holder.
So, at moment, retailers can list their products by the Google shopping tab for free, and you will feature. Moving forward, this is no longer going to be the case. In the US, the US model is a paid-for-inclusion model,  and the UK, along with nine other countries, will be emulating that model.
So how will you rank for those products that you want to feature for? You’ll make a maximum bid via Google AdWords or via the Google Merchant Center and Google will pick out those listings in respect of those products or target product groups via the amount that you bid in comparison to your competitor, and also the perceived relevance in terms of the search.
Now, a big feature of the changes is the fact that if you are to feature in the new platform,  you canl become a part of Google Trusted Stores, this is a badge, and its a performance standard metric that, currently, US retailers are utilizing.Now, this has been used for some time now in the US.
And it is a big change, because it’s, again, another, potentially, another very positive thing that can help you stand out in respect to your product listings within your competitors. We look at things like customer reviews, things like Trustpilot, eKomi, and Feefo. Maybe your social media shares, and all the other added little calls to actions in respect to looking at your conversion rate and your bounce rate.
Now this is another thing that’s going to give shoppers potentially the assurance to go through and make a purchase. So how does this work exactly? Well, it will come up in search– this emblem here will come up in searches by Google AdWords and by Google Shopping. Key performance metrics are things like shipping, shipping times, shipping speeds, and also things like cancellations of orders. Typically, the threshold’s quite high to be a part of this, and retailers need to have a performance rate between 97% and 99% to have this quality symbol.
So, in summary, what are all the key changes? Well, the UK model is looking to follow the US model. This is expected to take place in February.
So if you’re an e-commerce retailer and you’re currently using the Google Shopping to gain traffic, potentially in addition to your organic listings and your pay-per-click listings, then this could, in effect, start to be another cost that you need to factor in, and it’s an area of development. Or you’re interested in potentially gaining more traffic through this additional traffic source, then this is something that you really need to embrace, and get your head around. Because these changes are going to happen, and they’re really around the corner. And we’re really looking forward to keeping up-to-date with all these changes as of from now, and to watch to see where things go.
Thank you for listening. My name’s Alex. And if you’d like to leave a comment to give us some feedback, then we’re really looking forward to hearing from you. Thank you for your time.