E-Commerce and Google Merchant Center
The coronavirus pandemic and the measures implemented to help curb its spread have turned the business world on its head. Across the country brick and mortar stores have shuttered, with some slowly beginning to return to business, albeit often in a new and frustratingly limited capacity.
While many brick and mortar stores have shifted their focus to e-commerce and new digital solutions, many businesses—local and independent ones in particular—were not built and do not have the infrastructure to support a model solely reliant on online sales. Fret not, we come with good news!
Google has recently announced a major change to its Google Shopping platform in that Google is now allowing any business that sells products online to list their entire inventory on the Google Shopping platform FOR FREE. The idea is to assuage the exact issue mentioned above: to provide a viable solution for businesses that are ready to sell their products but lack the digital infrastructure to move their sales online at the drop of a hat. While base listings will be available to anyone who has a website or manages a store on a marketplace platform, the option to pay for a promoted listing will remain.
And one more exciting e-commerce announcement from the social media world! Instagram has just announced a new feature that allows businesses and individuals alike to add gift cards, food orders, and fundraiser stickers in stories and on their profiles. With this new feature, users can add a sticker in their story (as they would any other sticker from the Sticker Tray), and businesses a button on their profile, that allows customers to place an order through a partnering delivery service like DoorDash or GrubHub with a simple click from the social platform.
This is just one of many recent developments in technology geared toward helping small businesses connect with their customers and keep sales turning during this unprecedented time. As always, we are here to help you navigate these changes and stay on top of any and all updates!
Google Shopping Fact: There is a free aspect included now, but this still requires that you spend a budget. Once Google sees the spending they will give you the added value of free impressions and clicks.
Categorised in: The Shoreline Blog
This post was written by Shoreline Content Team
