Keeping Ads Relevant: Google Charges Retailers for Shopping Site Spots

By emeadows
September 12, 2012

The e-commerce battle between Amazon and Google continues to escalate. As more people are using the Amazon store to discover products, Google has begun to charge retailers for spots within its Google Shopping service, making each product listing an ad.
Charging is a way for Google to ensure that retailers keep their ads relevant and accurate, also ensuring a way to compete with the Amazon store.
According to Michael Griffin, founder and chief technology officer of online retail marketer Adlucent, Google needs to be making such moves: “Google and Amazon both have the same end goal, to be the destination that people go to do their product searches, and Amazon’s winning that battle.”
On Amazon’s side, the company has removed all of its listings from Google Shopping.
According to a Forrester Research study, about one-third of consumers start their shopping research on Amazon, while 13 percent start on a search engine. That’s a dramatic change from 2009, when nearly 25 percent began a search on a site like Google and just 18 percent started on Amazon.

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