Google Shopping Experience Scorecard Will Promote Merchants In Search That Provide Excellent Customer Service

Google is emailing folks who use the Google Merchant Center about a new Shopping experience scorecard that will be used to boost rankings in Google Shopping, amongst other benefits, for merchants who provide an "excellent customer experience." In short, if you provide a good customer service, Google will reward you with higher rankings and more visibility in Google Shopping search.

The email says the Shopping experience scorecard will be based on metrics such as:

• Delivery time
• Shipping cost
• Return cost
• Return window

Then if you do well on these metrics, Google said your listing may be eligible for:

• A boost in ranking
• A badge
• Other benefits that will help consumers find your business

Google added that "you will not be penalized if you don't offer a certain level of customer experience or if you don't link some or all the metrics to your Merchant Center."

Google has this help document that explains more, such as that this "program will monitor the experience you provide to customers in several areas, including shipping speed, shipping cost, return cost, and return window." The ratings range from "Excellent", "Comparable", or "Opportunity" on each metric.

To see your performance for each metric and your overall score, first sign in to your Merchant Center account, then from the navigation menu, click Growth, then click Shopping experience scorecard. To earn a badge, you must perform well relative to other merchants in all the required metrics. All metrics are calculated daily and have a lookback period to ensure sustained performance.

There are more details on that help document.

Here is a screenshot of this email from Menachem Ani on Twitter:

He shared that if you are logged in to your Merchant Center account you will see this:

It’s in Google Merchant Center (pictured). You’ve got a log into a GMC account. More info here:https://t.co/rsLmlPYxbr pic.twitter.com/39NNMZKjKY

— 𝙼𝚎𝚗𝚊𝚌𝚑𝚎𝚖 𝙰𝚗𝚒 Ⓜ️ (@MenachemAni) February 22, 2022

I do like this but I wonder if this can be faked and thus manipulated to gain rankings and more exposure in Google Shopping.

Forum discussion at Twitter.

Update: A couple weeks later Google responded about the concerns around merchants faking the data, learn more over here.