When working with eCommerce retailers there is always a trade off of risk and rewards working with Amazon and Google. Amazon can be seen as a more total solution as long as you are able to afford the advertising and can keep the high levels of service that an Amazon seller account requires it can be seen as a simpler solution. Traditionally if you wanted to sell through Google you would need a website, and worry about things like SEO, UX, loads speed, updates, security etc etc. So there has always been a break even point where either the Amazon fees for 8- 15% either look cheap or expensive. Google has decided to offer a similar solution with “Buy with Google”. This allows a user to buy without having to visit your website.
It is currently also commission free. Google is trying to get Amazon only (normally SMBs) onto its platform with this, they even allow you to upload your data to Google in the current Amazon feed format to make it even easier.
Google, in my opinion, has fallen behind Amazon within eCommerce – more and more people are starting and ending their sales journeys on Amazon. Google has been updating their eCommerce sales solutions a lot this year in an attempt to catch up. Google announced that some of its shopping placements would no longer be charged for in a press release last month.
It has announced that its Buy on Google scheme will be commission free, so now customers can buy your product directly from the search engine result / or shopping result page and not have to visit your website. The payment for products is currently with PayPal and Shopify in the US tests that are going to be rolled out over the next couple of months, with rumours that third party merchants will also be allowed to facilitate payments.
There are some requirements that you are going to have to meet to get onto the program – either the live one in the US or in other countries as it is rolled out.
PayPal – your merchant center account can be linked to your paypal account. Your PayPal account country and legal business name must match exactly.
Customer Service – Google is guaranteeing product purchases for customers, this means that you are going to need to have a robust customer service setup ready in place. If you get bad feedback it is possible that this will have real detrimental effects to your campaigns. Double checking the customer service email is correct in your merchant center, would be a real easy thing to be sending all your customer service enquiries to a non monitored email address.
Returns
This gets a bit more complex. Total Google generated returns slashed on your behalf and charges of a flat fee of $4.40 per label, but there are a number of options available going forwards.
- Continue with google facilitated returns
- Add Return Labels to the merchant center or through Google’s API.
Google looks like it is really fighting back against Amazon in the war of eCommerce.
https://support.google.com/googleshopping/answer/9115668?hl=en&cc=US