Background
As of May 16th 2016 if you sell a product that has a Global Trade Item
Number (GTIN) (a digital barcode) on Google, it
will be compulsory to include it in your feed, or else those items will be
disapproved.
Details &
Implications
Many
manufacturers make multiple products that are extremely similar when looked at
within the product page of a website. Think of a time when you have tried to
order something as simple as a TV, it’s
amazing how hard it is to work out if you are comparing the same model across
different websites. The difficulty in confidently identifying products, is what
makes product comparison sites difficult to build. Despite the fact Google has
created relatively robust face recognition software, the company has not come close
to replicating this with products, so Google has decided to progress by forcing
merchants to tell it exactly what each product is.
Merchants
must now use a standardized identifier to make sure Google can compare Golden
Delicious apples to Golden Delicious apples. The introduction of GTIN (Global
Trade Item Number) uniquely identifies any product that arrives in any kind of
packaging – barcodes are usually digital versions of a GTIN. The GTIN is as
familiar to logistics people as GRPs are to media people. They act as a common
language between warehouses and companies to ensure large companies are able to
efficiently transport goods from one business to another without needing
someone to key the actual order details each time.
Google’s
change ensures that it is getting access to this consistent data and can
therefore innovate on top of the existing infrastructure instead of creating
its own framework from scratch. If merchants do not comply with Google’s
decision, their product listing ads will simply stop working and their products
will not appear within Google shopping. This will obviously impact volumes for
merchants, so there will be a push on their side to include the GTIN.
Summary
Summary
After
receiving the updated product listing feeds, Google will have an interesting
new data source – the exact products on sale from a range of merchants and the
ability to compare. Therefore, Google can start ranking these merchants on how
quickly they stock new products, how successful they are at keeping items in
stock and how broad \ unique a range they sell. Even more interestingly they
can compare the prices these merchants offer, so give a guide as to how
competitively merchants price. Google can now also start looking at extending
quality scores to include metrics based on what retailers sell. Furthermore,
other companies will be making these standardized identifiers available on the
internet, making it potentially easier for the next Kelkoo to emerge.
