Google Shopping’s generative AI makeover is a reality check for ecommerce marketers heading into the 2024 holiday gift-giving season and beyond.
Google launched the transformed version of Google Shopping to U.S. consumers on October 15, 2024.
“The new Google Shopping experience uses AI to intelligently show the most relevant products, helping to speed up and simplify” product searches, according to Sean Scott, Google’s vice president and general manager of consumer shopping, in a blog post.
Small and midsized business leaders often shudder when Google changes one of its services. Phrases like “show the most relevant products,” for example, are concerning. What sort of t-shirt or puffer jacket is “relevant”?
Shopping Graph
The answer might be in the Shopping Graph, which, according to Scott, powers the new Google Shopping along with Gemini AI.
A knowledge graph, such as Google’s Shopping Graph, is a map that connects ideas or concepts (nodes) via relationships (edges).
In a 2023 article, Randy Rockinson, Google’s group product manager for Shopping, described how the Shopping Graph connects concepts.
“Let’s say you’re looking for a puffer jacket,” Rockinson wrote. “That seems easy enough. But what if you have something particular in mind? Maybe you’d love a women’s red puffer coat that’s cropped, shiny, and has a fleece hood.”
In that example, Google’s Shopping Graph understands the connection between a particular jacket on, say, the Nordstrom website and the concepts of red and shiny. It can return a list of products matching the specific request.
Google has used data graphs since at least 2012 and officially announced its Shopping Graph at its 2021 I/O event. Thus retail, direct-to-consumer, and B2B marketers are likely familiar with the concept.
Listings
Google’s Shopping Graph has about 45 billion product listings as of October 2024. Those listings come from several sources, including:
- Google Merchant Center (think product feeds),
- Google Manufacturer Center,
- Google Ads,
- Ecommerce websites,
- Product photography,
- Manufacturer websites,
- Product content, including PDFs,
- Blog and article content,
- Product reviews,
- Social media,
- YouTube videos,
- Product testing.
For many merchants, the connection to Google’s Shopping Graph begins with the ecommerce platform. Shopify, BigCommerce, and similar solutions streamline the submission of a well-formated product feed to the Merchant Center.
Nonetheless, knowing that Google Shopping via the Shopping Graph and AI wants to understand details such as whether a puffer jacket is shiny and has a hood unnerves many marketers.
Is your business optimized for these kinds of details?
Product Content
Merchants relying on Google Shopping should audit their product details on that platform, ensuring plenty of specifications and descriptions to help Gemini show personalized results.
Product feed? Showing up in Google Shopping starts with a quality product feed. Ensure that all required attributes — product title, description, price, availability, images — are included and up to date. Use high-quality images. Google Shopping uses images for Google Lens (the visual search tool) and virtual try-on services. And be certain inventory levels are accurate.
Structured data markup? Confirm that your ecommerce site uses structured data markup to give Google more context about your products. Structured data will help Google list and categorize products correctly in its Shopping Graph.
Optimize for visual shopping? In his post, Google’s Scott stated that a primary goal of the new Google Shopping is working with Google Lens and virtual try-ons.
Product reviews? We know that Google’s Shopping Graph gets at least some of its product data from reviews. Thus enabling and encouraging those reviews is a good idea.
Product-focused content marketing? We also know that Google uses YouTube videos as well as third-party blogs, gift guides, and similar to inform the Shopping Graph. Most stores focus only on feeds, which are essential. But don’t stop there. Tutorials, instructions, examples, and more could enable a competitive advantage in Google Shopping.
What’s Next
Search engine optimization and content creation remain at the core of ecommerce marketing as generative AI becomes more prevalent. The new version of Google Shopping is the most recent example.
Don’t be surprised if more changes are coming.