Google launch the Manufacturer Centre at GS1 UK

June 29, 2017 Industry news

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On 22 June, the marketplace team at GS1 UK welcomed Google’s shopping business development team, to launch their new platform for manufacturers.

Google joined us to launch their Manufacturer Centre platform in the UK, following successful launches in US and Australia. The briefing was attended by 14 GS1 UK members, who were the first UK brands to exclusively hear about the Google Manufacturer Centre.

Accurate product data is key online

With more than 100 billion searches each month, Google handles the lion’s share of all the product and shopping-related queries, globally. The Google team stressed the importance of having accurate product data and how much this can influence the behaviour of shoppers online. Google explained that in the US:

40% of returns are made due to poor product content
66% of shoppers have abandoned their baskets due to limited product information
86% of shoppers are less likely to make a repeat purchase with a retailer due to inaccurate information
Source: Shotfarm

So the value of providing complete and accurate product information online is clear.

What is the Google Manufacturer Centre?

The Google team described this as “a platform that allows manufacturers and brands to submit authoritative product metadata which is used to power commercial results across Google”. It’s important to note that it’s for the manufacturer only – so it’s separate from their Merchant Centre, which is for retailers.

With this free platform, brand owners can upload more detailed product information, such as descriptions, rich content, videos, images, URLs. Better product data can influence how products are represented across Google and invariably leads to more impressions and clicks.

The goal is to produce a knowledge card for all products, which of course will help shoppers make better buying decisions.

GS1 GTINs are crucial for Google

Google Shopping, which was launched in 2012, now lists 500 million products, in 30+ countries. At the briefing, the team from Google stressed GTINs are crucial to match product information and surface accurate and relevant results to users.

With the launch of the Manufacturer Centre, Google are again using the GTIN as one of the mandatory fields for product data. It’s as important as the title, description and product – they cannot be displayed without it.

The benefits

The Google team explained the three main ways the platform will help the brand:

Access to analytics - Review GTIN level impressions, clicks, and CTR, and compare product performance against category benchmarks
Better brand experience – The brand can influence the product data and improve their presence
Improved performance – Improves product impressions, traffic and ad relevancy

More to come

Some new features are already in the pipeline – for example, analytics on the average price for the product will be here soon. As the Google team launch the platform in the UK and across Europe they are keen to get more feedback on what brands want from the platform. The platform also has a dedicated support channel and help centre.
Find out more or get started here.

Initiatives from GS1 UK

At the briefing, teams from GS1 UK also presented two current projects, which perfectly link with the idea of enhancing data for improved results.

Our new standard for ecommerce, GS1 SmartSearch, makes it much easier for search engines to find the most relevant products – meaning they’ll show up in more search results for potential customers. The marketplace team is running workshops for GS1 UK members to trial this on their own websites.

The group also heard more on the Digital DNA project, from our grocery team. GS1 UK are working with retailers and brands to design and create a common industry approach for product data management across the UK grocery sector. Read more on the Digital DNA here.