Table of contents 
 

Introduction 3 

Why the change? 4 

What does this change mean for Merchants? 6 

What are the impacts to business? 9 

Performance before and after April’s changes 10 

What can we conclude from the data? 14 

What are the eligibility criteria for free listings? 16 

Get more out of your free listings 18 

How you can benefit from these changes 21 

So how can you get started internationally? 22 

Why do you need to localize listings? 23 

 
   

 
Introduction 
 
2020 has been a very busy year for Google. In a short period of time, they went from 
providing a mostly paid shopping ads platform, to a global ecommerce ecosystem that 
enables any merchant to sell their products anywhere in the world without worrying about 
the financial restrictions or zero visibility.  
  
To achieve this, the global technology giant implemented a series of changes and 
improvements to their Google Shopping platform and their surfaces across Google, over 
the last few months.   
 
At the end of April, Google’s first steps was to remove listing fees in the US market, 
enabling all merchants selling into the United States to list their products on their Google 
Shopping tab for free. This change enabled “unpaid ads” to coincide with paid ads in the 
Shopping tab, creating free traffic for merchants who were opted into the program.  
 

 
 

 
In July, they took another important step to reduce the cost of ecommerce for merchants 
selling on their US shopping platforms, by no longer charging commission fees for all 
merchants who sell through the “Buy on Google” checkout experience.  
 
And most recently in October, these changes were further extended to be available in the 
UK, EU, Asia and Latin American markets. This means listings for participating merchants 
across these markets will now be free on their Google Shopping platform. 
 
Previously only paid users were able to list their full products on the shopping platform. 
Now, any user, new and old, can now place listings for free, through their Merchant 
Center. The changes over the last few months will make Google Shopping more 
accessible by anyone worldwide following a time when businesses around were forced to 
shut down physical retail stores and move everything online. 
 
   

 
Why the change? 
 
2020 has been a difficult year for many merchants. A global pandemic limited domestic 
shopping and put on restraints to both physical and digital commerce. Many businesses 
across the world struggled with the lockdowns which led to a global GDP decline. 
 

 
 
The majority of the world’s largest economies saw economic decline, with the UK being 
one of the biggest losses at 21.7% and the US slightly better but still dropped at 9.5%. 
 
Following the impact, Google announced their intention to combat this downturn and 
help drive global ecommerce growth as well as empowering merchants across their 
platforms. Lowering the cost to do business and lowering barriers to sell on Google for 
merchants of all sizes, presented not only a lifeline for many struggling businesses this 
year, but also helped ease economic pressure from merchants worldwide.  
 

 
What does this change mean for Merchants? 
 
The changes made are intended to drive ecommerce growth, for small or large 
merchants and enable ecommerce sustainability in a time when buyer spending 
significantly dropped and businesses costs rose.  
 
Merchants have gained even more access to buyers and more visibility, with the potential 
to sell in markets all around the world. 
 
“These changes are about providing all businesses—from small stores to national chains 
and online marketplaces—the best place to connect with customers, regardless of where a 
purchase eventually occurs. With more products and stores available for discovery and the 
option to buy directly on Google or on a retailer’s site, shoppers will have more choice 
across the board.”​ Bill Ready, president of commerce, Google. 
 
There are 3 key changes to benefit merchants: 
 
- Greater product visibility 
- Improved buyer experience 
- Wider market access and more cost effective 
 
1. Better product visibility  
 
One of the main key benefits is the free product visibility and extra traffic to your listings. 
Google has slightly changed how ads and organic listings are placed and viewed in 
Google Shopping.  
 

 
Previously, only paid ad users were given prime screen space for merchants, and organic 
listings were given anything below. This limited the traffic merchants saw to their listings 
to anyone who wasn’t a premium paid user. 

 
To create better visibility to all products, Google has provided more space for unpaid ads, 
giving prime screen space to all kinds of listings.  
 
This helps to drive traffic to every user. Of course, the more competitive the product 
category, the less traffic free listings will receive, however they will still see an overall 
increase in free traffic prior to previous months. 
 
2. Improved buyer experience 
 
As more merchants are able to sell their products on the shopping platform, it in turn 
creates a better environment for buyers and ultimately a better buyer experience. 
   

 
  
 
Previously, products categories were more limited. Whilst some categories were very 
popular and competitive, such as electronics, clothes, gaming accessories etc, other 
more niche and very specific items such as pink headphones with blue dots, were either 
lacking in options or had no product listings at all.  
 
The changes enable merchants to list all of their products without added costs resulting 
in buyers now having access to more products than ever before, improving their overall 
experience. This in turn creates a snowball effect of new and regular consumers flooding 
to the Google Shopping platform for their purchasing needs. 
 
3. More market access and more cost effective 
 
With the changes Google has made already, as well as a surge in international buyer 
demand since the pandemic, merchants now have access to enter more markets 
worldwide and are able find more customers. By selling internationally, merchants not 
only open up their business to more buyers than ever before, but it enables them to also 
move away and ahead of their domestic competition. 
 

 
Additionally the new changes will now help to make it a lot more affordable selling on the 
Google shopping platform for merchants. With cost efficiency being more important than 
ever, selling on Google’s platform is now the go-to solution for merchants looking for a 
reduced cost of customer acquisition and selling fees. 
 
Google also opened the platform platform to third-party providers (starting with PayPal 
and Shopify), giving merchants more choice and freedom, to use their own payment 
provider, manage their customer service, and manage more of their processes. Like with 
their previous implementations, this was initially rolled out in the US, but is now available 
across all major markets. 
 

What are the impacts to business? 

 
The changes will have a relatively minor influence on paid shopping ads, but will greatly 
impact free product listings on the Google Shopping tab. Whilst you have a lot more 
limited control over your free product listings, compared to paid ads which allow smart 
bidding and performance optimization, you will see a great increase of traffic to your 
website for free. 
 
To highlight the impact these changes had on merchants in the US, we’ve gathered data 
over the last 6 months and compiled a series of graphs with analysis into the free traffic, 
and how it compares to paid traffic. 
 
   

 
Performance before and after April’s changes 
 
The enablement of free listings and unpaid ads was initially rolled out in the US in April.  
 
To understand the impact the changes had on traffic, we took data from 10 merchants 
across 10 different product verticals in the US and compiled graphs to identify the 
performance unpaid ads had on the traffic to their listings before the changes and after. 
 

Percentage of unpaid clicks before vs after the changes 

 
This graph shows what percentage of all clicks were unpaid, from May to the beginning 
of October. 
 

 
 
As you can see there was a substantial change to the traffic ratio. Originally, all traffic 
was almost exclusively coming from paid ads. Once the changes were implemented, 
each merchant saw a huge influx of traffic from unpaid ads, with the majority seeing a 
25-30% steady increase thereafter.  
 
   

 
Number of daily free clicks before vs after the changes 
 
We then looked at the same 10 merchants and instead compiled data to show the 
number of daily free clicks those merchants got before, and after the changes. 
 

 
 
This shows that all merchants received free traffic to their websites, with some gaining a 
huge influx per day. 
 
The really important takeaway from this data is that whilst there are minor rises and 
declines of the traffic for each merchant, once the changes were implemented to the US 
market, all of the merchants saw an immediate increase to their traffic and clicks whilst 
maintaining a steady flow of free clicks over the following months. 
 
   

 
Average percentage of incremental unpaid clicks in the last 6 
months 
 
Here we can see the average of unpaid clicks of all total clicks for each merchant, over 
the last 6 months. 
 

 
 
The majority of merchants were between 10 to 25% of clicks coming from all traffic being 
unpaid ads, with one going as high as 33%. 
 
The important takeaway from this is that whilst some merchants saw a greater overall 
average clicks through the 6 month period and some had a lot less, all of the merchants 
benefited from the change and received traffic from unpaid ads. 
 
 
   

 
Example of a UK merchant selling into the US 
 
This data shows a UK merchant, who localized their website to be able to sell into the US, 
and the unpaid clicks they received. 

 
We can see a steady incline of traffic, climbing from 0 daily traffic from unpaid clicks to 
around 18 per day at the start of october. Whilst there was a variety of minor rises and 
falls in traffic throughout the last 6 months, it’s evident there’s a steady overall gradual 
increase and even a substantial peak at 40 clicks one week in september. 
 
The main takeaway from this is not the results in itself, which are very positive as the 
merchant gradual increase of free traffic over time, but that this merchant was able to list 
their products in the US through localization to their listings and website and started to 
benefit greatly from the free listings.  
 
This is a very important result, and if not the most important out of all the data we’ve 
shown, it highlights that merchants across the world can benefit from the free visibility on 
overseas markets, and not just their own domestic market. 

 
 

What can we conclude from the data? 

 
Let’s take a deeper dive into what the data tells us about the impacts made in April. 
 
1. All merchants saw a positive boost to free traffic 
 
First and foremost, the changes implemented made a significant positive boost to the 
merchants performance after april.  
 
The majority of the merchants saw no free traffic prior to the changes in april. Once they 
were able to benefit from the unpaid ads, each merchant saw a minimal amount of 
traffic, with the average overall being 16.5% increase over the last 6 months. 
 
2. The traffic is steady and does not appear to slow down 
 
Free traffic from unpaid is good. Whether it’s over 1 week or 6 months, free traffic over a 
select time period is a huge boost to a business. The important trend however, is that we 
aren’t seeing this traffic slow down.  
 
Almost all merchants saw a variety of peaks and troughs variance throughout the 6 
month period, however each merchant saw a steady overall increase to their free traffic, 
which after 6 months, shows no signs of slowing down. This is something every 
merchant should look into utilizing.  
 
3. The impact is not limited to domestic merchants only 
 
As we can see looking at the data for the UK merchant who localized their site and 
listings to be able to benefit from the domestic traffic in the US, the impact of the 

 
changes are not limited to domestic merchants. This is probably the biggest, most 
important analysis from all the data so far. 
 
Being able to benefit from free traffic in more than one country can have an incredible 
impact on your business and sales. We already know that selling internationally has a 
huge benefit to merchants, with greater access to more buyers, less risk from domestic 
competition, less risk from external factors to name a few, but now these changes 
provide merchants with even more traffic and a reduced cost of buyer acquisition. 
 
Being able to list your products in different international markets, with an increase in free 
traffic to unpaid ads is going to be game changing for merchants of all sizes, in all 
verticals. 
 
With the changes now being made available in the UK, EU, Asia and Latin American 
markets, utilizing unpaid ads across international markets is something that you should 
strongly consider as part of your overall ecommerce strategy. 
 
   

 
What are the eligibility criteria for free listings? 
 
Whilst the changes are hugely impactful on businesses positively, there are still criteria 
that needs to be met in order to be eligible for free listings, and just like paid if they do not 
meet 100% of the requirements then they do not qualify to show in the shopping tab. 
 
These restrictions that Google put in place are designed to improve the customers 
experience during shopping. Whilst it may seem like a negative implication for merchants 
at first, this is actually a positive impact for both merchants and buyers for all products 
on surfaces across Google and the Shopping Ads tab specifically.  
 
For buyers, the criteria ensures that an overall positive experience whilst shopping is 
offered which leads to more spend and repeat purchases. For merchants, ensuring that 
products have as much information and data as necessary not only increases traffic to 
ads, but also the conversion rate at checkout.  
 

 
 

 
What this means is that for some of the merchants, a variety of their products did not 
meet this criteria and so could not be listed for unpaid ads, which may have impacted the 
amount of free traffic they gained to their website.  
 
However, these restrictions are not difficult to meet and there are things you can do to 
get more out of your free listings and ensure your products are available for unpaid ads. 
 
These requirements are: 
 
● description (required for all products) 
● availability (required for all products) 
● condition (required for each used or refurbished product) 
● brand (required for each product with a clearly associated brand or manufacturer) 
● gtin (required for all products with a GTIN assigned by the manufacturer) 
● mpn (required for all products without a manufacturer-assigned GTIN) 
● multipack (required if your product is a multipack) 
● is_bundle (required if your product is a bundle) 
● color (required for Apparel & Accessories) 
● size (required for Apparel & Accessories) 
● age_group (required for Apparel & Accessories) 
● gender (required for Apparel & Accessories) 
● item_group_id (required for product variants) 
● shipping (required when you need to override your shipping settings in Merchant 
Center) 
● tax (required in the US when you need to override your account tax settings in 
Merchant Center) 
   

 
Get more out of your free listings 
 
Whilst meeting these requirements is a necessity to be able to have a product qualified 
for free listings, it doesn’t mean your product will be automatically included. As Google 
continuously improves the customer experience of its users, their platform sometimes 
requires more from products and merchants, to meet the set expectations.  
 
What this means is that there is more you can do to enhance your unpaid listings to help 
your products appear for free on surfaces across Google. 
 
Here are some best practises you can follow: 
 
1. Use a Merchant Center product feed 
 
The first and foremost thing you can do to improve is upload your products in a Merchant 
Center product feed. This is a tool used to allow you to upload product data straight to 
Google and keep it up to date and precise.  
 
2. Ensure your feed is opted to surfaces across Google 
 
It’s necessary for you to opt in to surfaces across Google to be able to get your product 
listings accepted.  
 
To opt in, simply log in to your Merchant Account, find and select the “Growth” option and 
then “Manage programs” in the left navigation menu and select the “surfaces across 
Google” program card. You can also add products to your product feed, to make even 
more products discoverable in these free listings. 
   

 
 3. Help Google understand your products 
 
In order for your listings to find the right buyers, they need to have the correct attributes 
so Google can understand your product, and provide the correct matches through 
relevant queries.  
 
For listings of specific products, it is best to include at least one of these in your 
product data: 
 
Global Trade Item Numbers (GTIN): Submit these for all products for which GTINs 
exist. ​Learn more​,​ or 
Brand and Manufacturer Part Numbers (MPN) L
​ earn more 
 
4. Include more Apparel specific data and better quality images 
 
Apparel can be quite a vast category. Apparel product listings require a lot of data 
attributes to help identify differences in different types of clothing products, such as 
colour, size, patter, materials etc. Use product data attributes in the Merchant Center to 
help identify as many product variants. 
 
Use high quality images as well. Buyers are a lot less likely to click onto your listings if the 
image is low quality or unclear. Using high-resolution images for your products can go a 
long way to improve the chances of gaining more traffic to your listings. Additionally, 
providing more images with different angles of your products help to create a better 
overall experience. 
   

 
 5. Provide more data attributes for listings 
 
To help Google match your products with user searches, try adding more attributes 
 

 
 
For example, set up shipping configuration and shipping policy links: Adding a link to your 
shipping policy in surfaces across Google program settings is required for enhanced 
listings and recommended for standard listings. 
 
6. Comply with policies set for surfaces across Google 
 
This ensures your product data is eligible for the surfaces across Google program. 
 
7. Provide merchant trust and quality signals 
 
Google prefers websites and products that will be helpful and trustworthy for its users. 
Try adding a reviews program to your site to help create trust for your buyers. 
 
You can opt into Google’s own ​Customer Reviews​ program. 

 
 

How you can benefit from these changes 

 
Any merchant selling in the US, UK, EU, Asia and South America, will now have access to 
all of these changes currently implemented by Google.  
 
That is access to free visibility to your products, and your store, anywhere in the world. 
 
Our data shows that all merchants that participate for free listings in any given 
international market see an overall increase of 20% to their free traffic, which after 6 
months remained steady and showed no decline.  
 
Furthermore, as we saw with the UK merchant selling into the US, non-domestic 
merchants are able to sell into international markets and gain the same traffic increase 
as the domestic merchants, and so the impact of the changes are not limited to those 
native to that market.  
 
The benefit from free traffic in any Google Shopping enabled country is unlimited sales 
potential. Merchants who are now selling internationally on Surfaces across Google and 
the Google Shopping tab, have unlimited access to a global market full of buyers, with 
less risk from domestic competition, more traffic and a reduced cost of buyer acquisition. 
 
To be able to list your products in different international markets, with an increase in free 
traffic to unpaid ads is going to be game changing for merchants of all sizes, in all 
verticals.  
 
If you haven’t started yet, now is the time. 
   

 
So how can you get started internationally? 
 
You can enable your products to appear in free product results by participating in 
surfaces across Google. If you’ve already submitted product data, you may be 
automatically opted in.  
 
To take advantage of these changes domestically, all you would need to do is login to (or 
setup) your merchant account: 
 

 
 
Find and select the “Growth” option and then “Manage programs” in the left navigation 
menu and select the “surfaces across Google” program card. You can also add products 
to your product feed, to make even more products discoverable in these free listings. 
 
To take advantage of these new changes internationally, your product feeds need to be 
created for your desired markets and then localized.  
 
   

 
Why do you need to localize listings? 
 
Localization is extremely important for cross-border trade. Not only does it ensure your 
international listings get traffic but that your store can start to convert international 
buyers at the checkout. They expect a shopping experience similar to if they were to shop 
domestically, and providing them the localized experience is what leads into a checkout 
conversion.  
 

 
 
It is necessary to adapt your listings and your store to a whole new localized culture and 
shopping experience, reflective of the market you’re selling into. This includes product 
descriptions in your buyers language, sizes in their metric system, prices in their currency 
and their methods of payment accepted. 
 
Accommodating your listings and store for international buyers will not only dramatically 
increase your international transactions, but also increase the average transaction value. 
 

 
As a business partner of Google, Glopal enables merchants across Shopify, Magento, and 
BigCommerce platforms, to scale their international sales through Google Shopping. 
Glopal’s pricing model is simple and easy-to-understand. We do have a “Free forever” plan 
that enables full access to our Google Shopping solution as well as a “Pro” plan with 
custom features for advanced merchants.  
 
We can help you to launch Globally: 
 
● The solution localises the product feeds into over 25 currencies, providing buyers 
with the same local experience they’d expect. 
● Our payment solution allows accepting over 25 currencies via credit cards, Paypal 
and more. 
● Glopal’s international shipping creates a seamless and simple process, enabling 
merchants to ship their products overseas at a cost effective & competitive rate. 
● Contact us to learn how to launch ​globally 
 
To understand how you can take full advantage of this change and grow your 
international sales on Google Shopping, get in touch with one of our ecommerce experts.   
 
 
   

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
Discover your untapped sales growth 
 
On average our customers have seen a 4X increase in their international sales and a 32% 
increase in their total sales within the first 30 days. 
 
Glopal’s simple & fully managed ecommerce 
solution connects your existing Shopping Ads 
product feeds with buyers worldwide, growing 
your sales instantly. 
 
● Unlock greater access to buyers worldwide  
● Improve your ROI and invest at a lower CPC  
● Reach your global buyers in just a few 
clicks 
 
Learn more at m
​ erchants.glopal.com