Connect your Zoho Commerce store to Google Merchant Center

With retailers and small businesses focusing on ecommerce more than ever, we at Zoho Commerce are committed to making their journey a great experience. We've helped thousands of retailers realize how simple transitioning to digital can be.

An online store is usually just the first step in the ecommerce journey. The next big task is to get customers to the store and then to make a purchase. While advertising is an option, it's always important to use organic methods well. This is where Zoho Commerce's integration with Google Merchant Center can help.

What is Google Merchant Center (GMC)?

Google Merchant Center is a platform that integrates your shop data—such as product information—with Google so your products are available for potential shoppers to see when they search for them on a Google surface like Google Images, Google Shopping, and Google Lens.
As a Zoho Commerce customer, once you've integrated your store with GMC, your product and store information will get synced with the Google platform.

Should you integrate with GMC?

There are three main benefits to integrating with Google Merchant Center:

• It's powerful: If you set up your products well on Google Merchant Center, your store's online reach can increase tremendously.

• It's easy: There are only a few easy steps you have to follow to set up your store and activate the integration. Once done, you'll be able to list your products on Google Merchant Center.

• It's free: Google Merchant Center has free listings for your products. All it takes is a little time to find success!

How to integrate with Google Merchant Center?

Now that you're ready to integrate your Zoho Commerce store with Google Merchant Center, the first step is to have a functional Zoho Commerce store up and running. If you have that, here's how to proceed.

Why list products on Google?

Most online buyers start their shopping journey at a marketplace or with a search engine. Google's goal is to connect potential customers with an ecommerce store selling relevant products. To help with this, Google lets merchants list their products for free on GMC. This gives them their items the chance to appear on Google surfaces depending on their product's relevance to the search terms.

Types of listings

Standard listings

Unpaid standard listings can appear on Google Search and Google Images. If you are approved for only standard listings, your products will show only across the search and image tabs of Google.

Enhanced listings

Unpaid enhanced listings can appear on the Google Shopping tab. If you are approved for both standard listings and enhanced listings, your products will be shown across all of the Google surfaces mentioned above.

Google surface options for listings

With billions of search results being displayed by Google everyday, your products will have the chance to rank for relevant searches and be displayed to customers who are likely to purchase from you. Here are a few Google surfaces where your products will have the opportunity to appear:

Google Shopping

The Google Shopping tab allows products to be listed on different Google surfaces. To become eligible, merchants must adhere to these policies. You can submit the product feed through the GMC integration (recommended) or by adding a structured data markup directly on your website. To ensure a good shopping experience, the information provided must be accurate and high quality. A merchant's eligibility for the free listing will depend on the quality of information listed. Merchants may also be eligible for enhanced listings on GMC, provided compliance with a few additional policies is maintained.

Google Search

Shoppers use Google Search to research products, retailers, and brands. A preference for visual results and content-rich information such as images, ratings, and customer testimonials means that merchants who provide detailed attributes besides price, availability, and brands increase their chances of displaying their products for relevant queries.

For Google's recommendations, refer to their best practices document. Search results are available on mobile and desktop devices as standard listing in the US, while other features are available worldwide and work when you have your store linked to the Google Merchant Center.

A standard result for the Google Search bar is what we see in the above image. They have clearly mentioned the paid advertising products and the organically ranked products separately. Also, we have nearby listings which are recommended based

Google Images

On Google Image searches, products that are synced with GMC are annotated as available to buy. When shoppers look for brands or products on Google Images, product attributes such as price, customer reviews, and ratings are visible in the extended image view. This gives merchants a product placement advantage in the market, especially if customers use Google Lens on their mobile devices to identify products. These are available in the US as listing options, both for mobile and desktop devices.

Pro Tip: Products available in brick and mortar stores may now be listed on GMC. With the new local shopping feature, merchants can list products that appear on searches in local shopping options. This should boost local visibility and footfall for your store.

Getting your products listed on Google is free. While your products need to meet policy and listing requirements, the one-time effort is dwarfed in comparison with the long-term benefit for your business.

The built-in Zoho Commerce and Google Merchant Center integration will make this process easier for you. Ensure that you provide high-quality content and give your products the best chance to feature on Google's surfaces. Happy selling!