Google Shopping

RFW

There's been some news recently around Google adding a "buy" button to shopping feeds. Some had said that it was a move from Google to their own shopping site. I'd doubt that. If anyone thinks they'd get a better deal from Google than Amazon or Ebay then you'd be wrong.

I've now finally got a Google Shopping feed but only after a couple of months of getting there.
The initial problems were with the format of the feed and then it's setup. With some external help I managed to get that sorted.
Then my titles were too short, then they were too long (too short was about 90 characters, too long was 110!). Then I was told that my account was suspended because I didn't have refund/return details. I managed to appeal that on the grounds that all my listings have returns and refund information and they're quite easy to find.
All that took several weeks. When you have an enquiry Google insist on responding by telephone, usually from an Indian call centre with someone talking in broken English. I've nothing against that, except that it takes longer to understand what's being said and it's always been something that could have gone in an email.

That said, I've had an active feed for a few days and have already seen a trickle of sales from it.

I'll give them bonus points for always sorting out problems quite quickly but they were problems they caused themselves. If they do end up ever running a marketplace they would be a nightmare, worse than the worst of Ebay.

theonlywayisup

Setting up the fed is a bore, but when it is done it looks after itself. Subscribe to the daily update and it will tell you if you've missed an EAN or got a category wrong.

I would prefer Google over eBay any day. They have excellent help, quick and knowledgable staff, endless online help pages. They are a breeze compared to eBay.

RFW

I just received another notification of a suspended account for non compliance of policy. All they say is non compliant is quite clearly on the website. They appear to have a trigger happy idiot who keeps suspending my account.
Now I know how Ebay felt when their listings were all demoted on Google search.

ballisticbrian

RFW, can this work entirely without your own site hosting the actual item, i.e. they can click and buy it off the google search with PayPal?

RFW

ballisticbrian wrote: »

RFW, can this work entirely without your own site hosting the actual item, i.e. they can click and buy it off the google search with PayPal?

I'm not sure how the buy button will work, I assume it takes to the seller's website checkout page.

RFW

So my latest suspension was an "accident". Google are making Ebay look like the model of efficiency. Unlike Ebay though they screwed up, I emailed and they answered within a couple of hours, apologised and sorted it

fishybusiness

Have you somehow linked this to the Tictail system you were working on, or Amazon, or something else?

I'm interested in this, I looked at Google maybe a year ago, no way was I ready - it looked a bit heavy going.

Perhaps another look is due.

forgotmyname

RFW wrote: »

I emailed and they answered within a couple of hours, apologised and sorted it

If that was ebay they would have swore blind you did it or maybe your cat did it whilst you were asleep.

RFW

fishybusiness wrote: »

Have you somehow linked this to the Tictail system you were working on, or Amazon, or something else?

There's a Tictail app (paid for, about 5 Euros/month) that does the feed automatically and keeps updating. I tried doing it myself but I was climbing the walls after an hour, it's remarkably tricky. I was talking to a well paid computer programer about it and even he said he'd given up on it a few times.
I'm fairly sure I'm picking up sales from it, you can tie it in with adwords and set it as high or as low as you like. So until I get a chance to do more I've set it at £1 per day just to see what happens.

fishybusiness

I tried doing it myself but I was climbing the walls after an hour, it's remarkably tricky.

Hehe, try setting up a Magento store

Thanks for the info, I'm thinking it is time to revisit.

RFW

fishybusiness wrote: »

Hehe, try setting up a Magento store

I have done, although I didn't get much past signing up for it! Similarly with WordPress. If I concentrate really hard I can just about do some HTML stuff but I forget how to do any of it almost instantly so have to start all over again the next time.