Google Shopping

Could you talk about this a little?

So the old way, right? You wanna find, let's say, a red, uh, do- a down jacket with feathers, right? So you go to Google, and you type in down jackets, right? And there you see your Google Shopping up there, and you c- you can see, oh, I want a red one, so red down jacket.

You modified your query.

And there's the eight or nine vendors at the top, and then you've got the blue links in below, and you start scrolling, right? That's the old way.

And I think if that age group is already adopting AI to find what they're looking for, then Google's going to have to catch up and question-based searches, which means that the amount of data presented to consumers is going to be more funneled and they're going to get less results.

Whereas if you go into Google Shopping today or make a Google query, you're presented with pages and pages of results.

I think that retail is going to have to be more relevant and provide everything the consumer needs to make sure AI knows what consumers are looking for And that you come up, you know, I mean, AI is only going to give you three or four product suggestions, right? You know, Google, Google shopping gives you hundreds.

So, you know, we're really focusing on this at the moment to make sure we stay relevant in the next era of search.

Interesting.

A manufacturer's UPC on the box, a private label EAN on the shelf tag, and an ASIN for marketplace listings.

The key detail is that the first barcode in the list is the one Shopify sends to Google Shopping feeds and other sales channels.

And when you declare a barcode type, UPC, EAN, ISBN, GTIN, or ASIN, Shopify now validates the value against that standard's format, length, and check digit rules.

This matters because invalid GTIN errors are one of the most common causes of Google Merchant Center product disapprovals.

I always hear SMEC, so if you see that, he does that with Smarter E-commerce.

And they turn millions of data points into practical strategies, especially across Google Shopping, Performance Max, AI-powered advertising, of which there have been lots of that lately.

and the wider retail ad ecosystem.

He's got a background spanning retail operations and advertising tech and brings a unique focus on what really matters, and that's protecting margins and driving profitable, scalable growth.

And there's some nuance there.

Assume that the best practices probably fit for you and then look for the nuance, right? So if you're an e-commerce brand, it probably makes sense to run Google Shopping campaigns.

But not always.

If you're, again, like to me now, there's so much nuance to this, but it's like, should the first dollar be spent in Google or should it be spent in meta? And I think if you had asked me that question two years ago, I definitely would have said Google.