Google is making a significant change to the Google Shopping platform by allowing any business owner that sells products online to list their products for free on Google Shopping.
What exactly changed?
The Shopping tab section lists products for advertisers that are required to pay to have their products listed here.
Now, sponsored products are limited to the top of the page, leaving the rest of the page to populate organically.
These organic results are a mixture of products that buyers must buy on a seller’s website or Buy on Google listings (where the transaction is completed via Google’s checkout page).
Shopping.google.com, where Google lists products sold via Google Shopping Actions, is not changing and still operates the same way.
Who is eligible?
Existing users of Google’s Merchant Center and Shopping Ads, who have opted into the “surfaces across Google” program, do not need to do anything else. Those sellers who need to opt-in can do so by selecting Growth > Manage programs > Surfaces across Google.
For more information, see Show your products in free product listings on the Google Shopping tab.
How can Google Shopping Actions sellers take advantage of it?
If you sell on Google Shopping Actions only, your screen will look similar to this:
You will need to click “Get Started” under Surface across Google. One important thing to mention is that to activate Surface across google, you will need to provide an e-commerce website link in your Google Merchant Center settings to enable this option:
