Google to Highlight Shopping Deals in Search

As Google integrates with additional ecommerce tools to help it get more products in front of searchers’ eyeballs, it is also working on making deals more prominent to shoppers. Searches for “discount code” have increased 50% since last year, it reported.

Google executive Bill Ready updated merchants on new developments relating to ecommerce in the Google Keyword blog, writing that the company will launch a deals results page on Search and the Shopping tab later this year, part of its efforts to make it easier for shoppers to discover brands’ promotions, “just in time for seasonal shopping.”

In addition, Ready said Google will make it easier for brands to track the effectiveness of promotions, writing, “New real-time, deal optimization reporting is also coming to Merchant Center.”

Google had announced a new Shopify integration at its I/O developers conference, and on Thursday, it announced additional integrations that are forthcoming: retailers on WooCommerce, GoDaddy and Square will soon be able to integrate with Google easily and for free.

“This open ecosystem approach means that retailers will have even more ways to get discovered across Google, and shoppers will have even more choice,” Ready wrote.

As we reported on May 18, Google is giving merchants who use the Shopify ecommerce platform a leg up in search results, not only on Google and Google Shopping, but on YouTube, Google Images, and more. And the company is sharing more about its “Shopping Graph” engine with developers.

Google’s Shopping Graph is designed to make shopping sessions more helpful by connecting people with over 24 billion listings from millions of merchants across the web, helping shoppers discover products in real-time.

Ready also revealed that Google is piloting a merchant loyalty program integration. “If a consumer has a loyalty account with you, they will be able to instantly link it. If a consumer doesn’t, they’ll be able to easily join your loyalty program with a click of the “Create Account” button.”

That’s pretty powerful, though presumably larger merchants are the primary beneficiaries since most small sellers don’t have such programs.

You can find the full post on the Google Keyword blog.

Ina Steiner

Ina Steiner is co-founder and Editor of EcommerceBytes and has been reporting on ecommerce since 1999. She's a widely cited authority on marketplace selling and is author of "Turn eBay Data Into Dollars" (McGraw-Hill 2006). Her blog was featured in the book, "Blogging Heroes" (Wiley 2008). She is a member of the Online News Association (Sep 2005 - present) and Investigative Reporters and Editors (Mar 2006 - present). Follow her on Twitter at @ecommercebytes and send news tips to ina@ecommercebytes.com. See disclosure at EcommerceBytes.com/disclosure/.