Meaning of Merchant Part III

What is a Google Merchant Center?

According to Definitionexplorer, a platform is called Google Merchant Center . This platform enables you, as an online shop operator, to place data feeds for placement within your product data. The term merchant center translates as dealer center . In the Google Shopping area and some other Google services, users will later be shown the details of your product or service. For you as a merchant, the Google Merchant Center has the advantage that you can significantly increase the reach of your shop. This means that you increase your access numbers and, in the best case, you can also increase your sales and profit.

How does this Google Merchant Center work?

If this “dealer center” is an interesting variant for you as a merchant, you have to take a few steps in the first step.

Sign in with your Google account
Registration with your data in the Merchant Center
Creation of your data feed (possible for each of your products)
Upload your feed

Since this is a completely automated process, you can place as many items as you want from your shop on Google Shopping.

Attributes your feed must contain

Google makes it a little easier for you here. It is precisely defined which attributes or information you have to store for your product. Only if this is met will they be included in the sales catalog. To achieve optimal positioning, the following must be included.

a title for your product
the fixed price for the product
a fixed article number
a detailed product description. The maximum length you have for this is 10,000 characters.
Information about the condition of the product (e.g. new or used)
the availability of the product
Assignment of each product to a Google product category and an article category
all further links must lead to the target page you want (i.e. to the product)
Adding a product image has a positive effect on the ranking

This is how you can become a Google Merchant

Since the Google Merchant Center was set up in 2010, there is actually no getting around it for retailers. We have already presented the essential points of how to become Google Merchant above.

In summary, the following can be said:

You should be an online retailer in order to benefit from the Google Merchant Center , because then you can also use the connected sales channels via other Google sites such as YouTube.
To do this, you should already have a Google account or create one first.
You can then register and set up your own Google Merchant account .
To register, it is first important to enter your company information.
In the second step you can upload all your product data and product descriptions from your catalog. Please note the rules for the configuration (see: “Attributes that your feed must contain”).
Due to the regular updates and possible translations into other languages, you can benefit from the fact that your products are available worldwide!
Google Support is available for questions and problems, and there you will also find further tips and instructions online on how to log in correctly . It also explains exactly how to submit your product data and how to create your shopping campaign . Nothing can really go wrong there.

Affiliate Marketing Trends

For you as a merchant, it is of course also important to keep an eye on the latest trends. How is what developing? Where can there be problems? First of all, good news. The forecast for sales is still very rosy. This continues the trend from 2018, which made 72 percent of all merchants operate more successfully than in the previous year. An overview of the most important trends that you should know. These are especially important for affiliates, but should also be considered by you as a merchant.

Important trends affiliates	Affiliate Issues	Publisher model for merchants
Mobile traffic is increasing ePrivacy creates problems Expansion of cross-device tracking	There is no cross-device tracking on the merchant side Data protection is becoming more and more important Commissions for merchants too low	Content pages more and more popular Deal sites are growing in popularity Cashback / bonus more and more important

Advantages and disadvantages in affiliate marketing

As with all self-employed opportunities, you have to pay attention to the pros and cons of affiliate marketing. After all, this is also a type of independent and commercial online marketing.

Benefits of affiliate marketing

Disadvantages of affiliate marketing

As a merchant you get free advertising space. You only have to pay when a conversion takes place.
It is not particularly difficult to integrate images, banners, links and other advertising material on certain media.
Affiliate is a great way to make money online . This depends on the commission negotiated with the merchant.
As a merchant you can advertise your products or services in a variety of ways and make them accessible to a large group.
Networks can be used as both a merchant and an affiliate. This not only reduces labor, but also costs.

Not all products are easy to market. Therefore, think carefully in advance whether this really fits the offer.
Incorrect marketing and poor placement of advertisements can damage the merchant’s image.
Pay close attention to the costs involved in affiliate programs that are subject to a fee. Otherwise, as a merchant, advertising your products can quickly become a cost trap.
It often takes patience and time to achieve the right success.

Conclusion

If you want to start an affiliate program as a merchant, there are a few relevant criteria to consider. For the small online shop operator, a high setup fee can mean too much. Another merchant, on the other hand, sees the potential sales through a higher range. At the start you can also use some smaller networks. However, it should be noted here that sales will not be particularly high here. As a merchant, you have to carefully consider which partner program in which network is best for you.