Google is gearing up to extend its paid results on its Google Shopping tool, as the web giant looks to extend its hugely successful AdWords model to the world of ecommerce.
Following a launch in the US this year, Google Shopping will add paid services to the UK, Germany, France, Japan, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Brazil, Australia and Switzerland, starting February 13th 2012.
The first major change of the gradual global roll-out will see Google Shopping search results change to include commercial formats labelled as “Sponsored,” appearing now in the space occupied by Adwords ads. The roll-out is scheduled to be complete by Q2 2013.
Google Shopping is already available internationally, but it is currently a basic product search service.
Google’s new commercial model ‘Product Listing Ads’ tweaks the ranking in Google Shopping to be based on a combination of relevance and bid price.
“The online and offline shopping experiences are really starting to merge. So we’re launching a new set of tools that help people get the most out of their holiday shopping,” says Jennifer Dulski product management director of Google Shopping.
“These visually cleaner results for shopping queries will enable shoppers to refine a search by brand or price, and feature larger product images to provide a better sense of a product’s attributes,” added Sameer Samat, Vice President of Product Management, Google Shopping.
Watch this ‘Hangout’ video from Jon Venverloh, Senior Manager–Google Shopping, offering a guide to creating and optimising product listings on Google.
Read the official blog here
