Today Google announced free Google Shopping listings.
What it is – free organic listings on Google shopping which will be available only in the Google Shopping tab on google.com (not the Google search homepage).
This will power a larger comparison engine of products within the Shopping tab exclusively. Your paid Shopping ads will continue to serve within this tab (as well as on the Google search home page) alongside the new organic listings. Your paid ads will have the advantage of being placed at the top of the page with dynamic audience targeting. The organic Shopping listings will be sourced through your Merchant Center and shown only if you are deemed relevant by Google.
This is launching in the USA at the end of April and the rest of the world at a later date – still to be announced.
The news was released on a blog by Bill Ready, Google’s President, Commerce. It states that it’s now free to sell on google shopping. In the blog, it is clear that he is talking about the shopping comparison search engine that is accessed by selecting the Google Shopping tab. You will still have to pay for your Google Shopping ads which appear on the Google search results page.
We will update you when we know more.