Integrating Google Shopping with WebShop
Purpose and scope
Do you want to expand the number of channels where your products are displayed? WebShop's integration with Google Shopping provides functionality that allows you to do just that. This integration syncs your product catalogue with Google Merchant Center. Once synced, your store’s products can be included in Google’s free listings and promoted using Smart Shopping campaigns.
According to Google Help, Google Shopping1 is:
Powerful: uses Google's search technology to locate your products and providing a link to your WebShop allowing your customers to easily place an order,
Comprehensive: includes any product from your product catalogue that you wish to showcase and
Fast: very quick results are displayed after your customer enters their search term.
Our built-in configuration tool guides you through creating a link between Digital Commerce and Google Merchant Center, which allows you to use Google Shopping campaigns ads with direct links listed to products in WebShop.
The purpose of this feature guide is to describe what and how to use our built-in configuration tool to configure this feature.
This feature is only available as part of the Digital Marketing SmartPack. Contact our sales team for more information.
Assumptions
To use this feature, you must have a multi-client account with an associated sub-account in Google Merchant Center.
Any costs associated with Google Merchant Center are your responsibility.
Benefits
Key benefits of using Google Shopping ad campaigns are that they can increase your return on investment by improving SEO, Google search results for your products and improving your Click Through Rate (CTR).
Integrating Google Shopping with your WebShop has additional benefits:
Provides an automatic feed of your products between your ERP and your Google Merchant Center via Digital Commerce Platform. This means you can manage your product catalogue in your ERP, and be sure that any updates you make are regularly and automatically updated to Google Shopping.
Streamlines the process of placing an order. Once a customer has selected to purchase a product, they are seamlessly directed to WebShop to place their order; as standard, the order is placed in real-time into your ERP.
Shares up to date, accurate real time stock and pricing data direct from your ERP via our platform.
Use it as an automatic feed via WebShop to other systems, such as MailChimp or Klaviyo.
Introducing terms and concepts used in this article
Term | Definition |
|---|---|
Application Programming Interface | (API), which is an interface that allows two different computer systems interact with each other. It consists of a number of rules (also known as endpoints) that request data from the other system and receive and process responses from that system. |
API key | a code used to identify and authenticate an application. |
Enterprise resource platform (ERP) | (ERP), a collection of your critical business operating systems, such as product, stock levels, financial, customers, suppliers and so on that run on the same platform. |
a service offered by Google which allows you to add your product information into Google. Once this information is uploaded to Google, the service makes it available to your customers when they search for your products using Google. | |
Product feed | a structured description of your products that can be shared with other channels. |
Search engine optimization | (SEO), a method of attracting more organic traffic to your website (in this case, WebShop) by making it appear higher on search engine results pages. |
Uniform resource locator | (URL), the address of a website. |
Fitting it all together
We have included a built-in configuration tool in your Management Interface that guides you through creating an account in Google Merchant Center, verifying your WebShop and creating a product feed from our platform to your account in Google Merchant Center.
Once you've connected WebShop with Google Merchant Center, we'll help you upload the initial product catalogue.
After logging into Management Interface and opening the configuration tool, you are directed to create an account in Google Merchant Center. To successfully integrate WebShop with Google Shopping, you must have a multi-client account with an associated sub-account in Google Merchant Center. Google Merchant Center is a service offered by Google which allows you to add your product information into Google.
Then, you return to the configuration tool in Management Interface to verify and claim your WebShop. This means you specify your WebShop URL in your Google Merchant Center account, and indicate that you wish all checkouts on Google Shopping ads to take place on WebShop.
Next, you create an automatic link between the two systems, which allows you to upload products in WebShop to use in your Google Shopping channel and Google Shopping marketing campaigns.
Finally, carry out a final review to finish creating your Google Merchant Center.
After reading this section, why not open our step by step guide to using our configuration tool to link Google Shopping with WebShop?
Here's a visual on what is required for you to integrate Digital Commerce with Google Merchant Center:
Read here for a detailed step by step of how to use the configuration tool to link Experlogix Digital Commerce with Google Merchant Center so you can avail of the many benefits of using Google Shopping.
References
1 External site: How Google Shopping works
2 External site: Onboarding guide: Sign up for Google Merchant Center