Google announced that it is making Buy on Google commission free. This comes after Google has made Google Shopping free both in Google Shopping and Google Search. Also, Google said retailers can use either PayPal and Shopify for payments and will support more in the future.
Google said "Soon, sellers who participate in our Buy on Google checkout experience will no longer have to pay us a commission fee. And, we're giving retailers more choice by opening our platform to third-party providers—starting with PayPal and Shopify." Why is Google doing this? Google says to help the small businesses. Google said "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."
- If you're brand new to selling on Google through Shopping Actions, you'll be invited to onboard directly to this new 0% commission version of the program.
- If your store is already live on the platform, you'll be invited to migrate your account to the new version with 0% commission over the next few weeks. When it's time to migrate, you'll find a Terms of Service overview page in Merchant Center, where you can accept the new Terms to take advantage of the new 0% commission rate. In the meantime, starting July 30, your commission rate will be automatically capped at 5% or less.
So when you see the "Buy on Google" button, that will be free for the merchant soon - which may or may not lead to lower priced good for us?
As Ginny Marvin wrote Amazon's "fees typically ranging from 8 to 15% per item sold." So this can be a huge blow to Amazon - but we will see if Amazon reacts or just waits it out.
Google is also going to promote this by adding a new small business filter on the Google Shopping tab to highlight these businesses.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
