Which platform is best for your business – Google Merchant Center or Shopify with Top 3 Pros and Cons?

An overview: Google Merchant Vs Shopify – Which platform is best for your business?

With the ever-expanding eCommerce expansion, more and more new forms and platforms that promote and encourage consumers to shop online are becoming available. The eCommerce sector has changed dramatically since the outbreak.

The Google Merchant Center and Shopify app development company are in the same boat. The purpose of this essay is to examine the advantages and disadvantages of Shopify and Google Merchant Center, as well as to explain why Shopify is preferable for small businesses without Google Merchant Center.

If you haven’t yet connected your Shopify store and want to learn more about a startup, you may learn a lot from how Shopify is good for small businesses.

What Are Google Merchant Center And Shopify, And What Do They Offer Retailers/Businesses Owners?

Image Credit: Allfetch.com 

Google Merchant Center is an online service where eCommerce shops can publish product information that is used to power Google Shopping Ads. You could also provide details regarding your eCommerce business, shipping, and taxes in the Merchant Center.

Your products and critical details about the Shopify store are immediately synced well with Google Merchant Center thanks to Shopify’s Google channel.

Then, immediately from your Shopify admin, you can adjust your Google product listings. Merchandise synchronized to Google Merchant Center utilizing Shopify’s Google channel could display in an appropriate Google Shopping tabs search engine listings for free for qualifying places selling in the U.S.

The Google Merchant Center was used to upload all of the products that appear when you search for something on Google Shopping.

The Merchant Center also provides data for the unpaid, natural product listings that Google just added to the Google Shopping Tab.

The Google Merchant Center is a single website dashboard where online merchants can maintain their presence across all Google eCommerce products and make necessary modifications to their online listings.

The Google Merchant Center’s major objective is to allow businesses to submit and update product information, such as photographs and pricing, in order for it to appear in pertinent Google Shopping searches.

The Google Merchant Center additionally interacts with other Google services like Google My Business to provide you with complete control over your Google-based advertising and eCommerce.

Caters To All Google Interactions

Once a company has completed the setup procedure, the Google Merchant Center — including its associated services — offers a number of advantages.

• Accuracy Of Google Shopping Listings

Buyers looking for products on Google will see the company’s offerings presented in a catalog-like fashion, enhancing visibility.

• Integration Google Adwords 

All merchandise in the Google Merchant Center may be quickly and simply linked to individual AdWords adverts. Remarketing tactics can also be used to inform customers of things they’ve previously looked at.

• Support To Google Analytics 

Users of Google Analytics can create a Custom Segment for Google Merchant Center hits to keep their statistics separate from other hits.

• Online Product Reviews

Product reviews are integrated within their listings, and their star ratings are displayed beside them. Preference is given to 4.5- and 5-star products.

• Website Funnels That Are Direct

Buyers can go straight to an eCommerce site’s store page by clicking on the public listings.

• Integration With Google Local Search

Geographic tagging is a feature that allows sellers to guide purchasers to nearby establishments.

What Are The Top 3 Pros And Cons Of Using Google Merchant Center Vs Shopify?

The Top 3 Pros Of Using Shopify

Shopify’s popularity as an eCommerce platform is unquestionably due to these top three benefits. 

• Unlimited Customization Options

Shopify also has a lot of customization choices, as well as a lot of free themes. Beyond the free or commercial themes offered, one can add unique design elements to achieve his desired appearance and feel.

• User-Friendly eCommerce

Shopify is well-known for having a simple and easy-to-use platform. The user interface is simple to use, which can make or break the usefulness of an eCommerce company platform.

This has resulted in a great variety of successful projects for the company, as well as establishing it as a company that people can trust.

• Straightforward Delivery System

Shopify is a turnkey solution that lets you quickly and easily create your own website. All you have to do now is sign up and start designing and building your online business. You can sell your products in the shortest amount of time thanks to the fast-paced setup.

The Top 3 Cons Of Using Shopify

Despite its many advantages, Shopify has a number of disadvantages. Shopify has a few downsides when it comes to starting an e-commerce firm.

• It Is Expensive 

Shopify is not free, like so many other unrestricted and self-hosted e-commerce platforms. In comparison, you have a lot of amazing e-commerce store development options, such as Magento, WooCommerce, and so on.

If you’re a developer with some expertise in creating web interfaces, these inexpensive and self-hosted choices can let you create a custom-designed store website.

Obviously, security certificates, payment gateways, and a variety of other services need purchase, whereas Shopify provides all of these things for free.

• No Marketing Automation

Unfortunately, marketing automation technologies are not included in Shopify’s plans. If you wish to automate the marketing chores, you’ll need to locate another source, such as Mailchimp, or pay a monthly price for a Shopify app.

When it comes to scaling your business, automation is among the most significant tools you can utilise. Even if this platform can not provide its own type of marketing automation, you must still take full advantage of it.

• Hefty Transaction Fees

Each sale you make on Shopify incurs a transaction fee. This is a one-time cost that you must pay using the Shopify platform.

The magnitude of this cost varies based on the plan you select, however, these charges can catch you off guard if you don’t have a thorough understanding of what you’re paying for.

The Top 3 Pros Of Using Google Merchant Center 

• Free of Cost

It is entirely free to use the Google Merchant Center. Remember, you’ll still have to charge per user engagement. This can be accomplished in a variety of ways:

Click-through-rate (CPC). You pay a set sum each every time a potential customer clicks on one of the adverts using this strategy.

The cost of each engagement (CPE). You’re billed every time a user “engages” with an ad with CPE. Expanding a collapsed ad, seeing an ad for more than 10 seconds, browsing an ad, and clicking on an ad are all examples of this.

• Huge Visibility 

Whenever it pertains to advertising business sheets on Google Shopping, Google Merchant Center is a must-have tool. It offers a significant benefit in terms of search engine visibility, although it is still somewhat technical.

• Comprehensive Ads

The main benefit of Google Merchant Center is that it allows you to submit detailed and precise adverts for your merchandise to Google Shopping.

You may then change them in real-time, ensuring that your visitors have access to up-to-date information at all times. These sheets, which are imported via the product flow, are then fully suited for the web browser, making them easier to find by Internet users.

The Top 3 Cons Of Using Google Merchant Center 

• Account Suspension 

Google may suspend the Merchant Center for a variety of reasons, including difficulties with your products and issues with your shop or campaigns. Check out the account difficulties area for further information.

One of the most probable explanations for the suspension of the Merchant Center is just because part of the needed contact information in your store is missing. So, if you ever want to know why is my Shopify store unavailable and is associated with a GMC now you know why. 

• Less Control 

You don’t have as much control over which products or product categories get so much more (or less) attention from the media. Unlike ordinary Google Shopping, which allows you to create several ad sets per campaign, Google Shopping only allows you to create one.

You’ll need to establish marketing for every product group or category to get around this. You’ll have a little more control over where your advertising dollars are spent this way.

• Data Feed Rules

A product feed is how a shop informs a product advertising channel about its inventory. To assess ad exposure, a shopping medium like Google will traverse this information with customer web searches and your bids.

While most marketers recognize the necessity of uploading feeds, they frequently overlook the importance of optimizing feed data and integrating it with a full Google Shopping plan. This is beneficial to merchants who do not have access to a true data feed source or solution. The primary issue is that you can’t do things in bulk.

Google Merchant vs Shopify: Top 5 Pros

Google Merchant Pros	Shopify Pros
It is entirely free to use the Google Merchant Center.	Shopify also has a customer service team available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to assist you.
It gives you a tremendous advantage in terms of search engine visibility.	Shopify is completely mobile-friendly, with a responsive UI that lets users to effortlessly browse.
The biggest benefit of Google Merchant Center is that it allows you to create detailed and precise adverts for your products.	Shopify also provides a wide range of customization possibilities, including a large number of free templates.
Google Merchant Center has evolved into a central location for managing your product feeds.	To target search page rankings, Shopify provides full proof functionality for your eCommerce site.
When you use well-known eCommerce platforms like Shopify, you get a lot of plugins and extensions.	Shopify’s comprehensive PCI DSS compliance ensures the highest level of security for credit and debit card transactions.

 

Shopify vs Google Merchant: Top 5 Cons

Shopify Cons	Google Merchant Cons
In comparison, Shopify is a fairly pricey eCommerce platform to use.	Google Merchant has the authority to suspend your account at any time, leaving you perplexed as to why.
Each sale you make on Shopify incurs a transaction fee.	A never-ending battle to resolve account, feed, and product difficulties.
Marketing automation technologies are not included in Shopify’s plans.	You don’t have as much control over which products or product categories get more (or less) media attention.
The nature of marketing tools is quite basic and rudimentary.	As soon as your catalogue necessitates the use of GMC, it necessitates technological skills.
It can make migration more difficult in a variety of ways.	Uploading products via data feed takes a lot of time and work.

 

Final Thoughts: The Advantages Of Using Shopify Over Google Merchant Center

Our final verdict over this is Shopify is more advent for your business. However, there is a few percent of chance that many of you may find this vague reference to this to find your answers to how is Shopify a website builder.

• Quick set up & use

Shopify makes it simple to create an online business without the hassle of dealing with infrastructure or development fees that come with self-hosted platforms like Magento.

Because all of the functionality is logically organized, the administration interface is clean, user-friendly, and intuitive. The Shopify website also has a lot of material and video tutorials. You only require a thing to sell.

• No Technicalities 

To open a basic Shopify store, you don’t need any technical knowledge; Shopify provides all software and hosting. Not only will this make it much easier to get started, but Shopify’s hosting is considerably faster and much more secured than you can ever achieve on your own, and it will easily handle any traffic spikes you may experience.

All software updates are also handled by Shopify. So you can concentrate all of your energy on selling rather than worrying about technological concerns, which is fantastic.

• Reliable & Secure

If you run an eCommerce store, you’ll be dealing with personal information such as credit card numbers, as well as restless consumers. This means that your website must be quick, secure, and accessible at all times.

One of the major benefits of a hosted solution is its dependability. Shopify will handle all server repairs and upkeep for you, ensuring that the store including the shopping cart is always available and that webpages grow exponentially.

SSL certificates can be activated in your store to encrypt all data and send it over a secure connection, and Shopify will handle PCI compliance for business.

• 24/7 Customer Support

Customer service is a priority for Shopify. They are accessible 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with a quick reaction time, ensuring that your enterprise is never left alone. You can contact us by phone, email, or live chat. There are also a variety of community forums, comprehensive references in the Shopify Help Centre, and a number of sophisticated Shopify University guides available.

• Mobile-Friendly

With smartphone traffic to websites already outnumbering desktop visits, having a mobile-friendly website is critical, not optional. Fortunately, Shopify is aware of this. Shopify’s themes are all mobile responsive, and the platform provides a free built-in mobile commerce shopping cart, so your store will look fantastic on any device and your customers will be able to shop whenever and wherever they want.

• Customizable

There are 160 free and paid themes available inside the Shopify Theme Store, which are all mobile responsive, as well as hundreds more on sites like ThemeForest. Each theme can also be completely customized by altering the source code. So it’s simple to create a gorgeous and distinctive online shop that matches your company identity!

• SEO & Marketing tools

It’s all good to have a lovely online shop, but if no one visits, you’ll be closing up shop in no time. Shopify’s sophisticated Search Engine Optimization (SEO) capabilities will make your site rank higher in the search results, making it easier for customers to find you. You also have advanced analytics at your disposal, which may inform you where your clients are coming from so that you can customize your marketing accordingly. You might want to enlist the assistance of an SEO firm.

You can find a wide selection of marketing options in the app store, including social network integration, product reviews, and email marketing. Shopify comes with the ability to generate discount codes as standard. At the following level up, gift certificates are available. All of the themes have social networking icons. Shopify Kit was created to assist you if you’re feeling stressed by online marketing and the time it can take. It functions as a virtual employee, suggesting and carrying out marketing duties based on your items, target demographic, and store performance.

• Abandoned Cart Recovery

 If a customer adds a product to their shopping cart but then leaves without purchasing it? Over two-thirds of potential buyers, according to data, will do so. Shopify features an incomplete checkout cart repair service that records and emails these prospective consumers to encourage them to finish their purchase; it’s a simple approach to potentially increase income.

• Own Payment Gateway

Shopify has dozens of payment gateways integrated, but it also has its own Stripe-powered payment gateway. You will not be charged any transaction fees and your credit card fees will be reduced if you choose this method. It also does not necessitate the use of a merchant account.

If you still find any difficulty finding the best Shopify website design services, Folio3 is here to help you out. We are one of the leading Shopify custom development services you can hire Shopify developers with us and enjoy the best possible Shopify custom app services around the globe.

FAQs About :

How to deactivate a Shopify API Connection to the Google Merchant Center?

This is the best Shopify migration if you’ve just switched from Shopify’s Google app to a data feed management platform. You’ll now want to log out of Shopify and terminate the Google Merchant Center account. If you don’t remove the Google Merchant Center profile, the data feed management solution’s product feeds will be occasionally overridden with low bandwidth data from Shopify’s Google app.

Permitting the Shopify API to transmit Merchant Center contradictory product data might impact performance in a variety of ways. For example, you might see a spike in item invalidations, Shopify might overwrite your outstanding product names, and you might lose key custom labels that help with ad campaign segmentation.

Deactivate your Shopify API connectivity from the Google Merchant Center by implementing these procedures to avoid any influence on the product information in your feed:

1. Log in to your Shopify account.
2. On the left sidebar, go to “Sales Channels” and then to the “Google” channel.
3. Select “Manage Your Account” next to the Google account from the “Settings” page.
4. To deactivate the Shopify API that feeds into the Google Merchant Center, go to the Google Merchant Center account section and click the “Disconnect” option.
5. Now, click “Save” and we are done.

What is the Google channel configuration for Shopify?

Google Channel is a simple app to install from the Shopify App Store. You must authenticate the Google account and Google Merchant Center account after installing the Google channel in order to sync your Shopify products with Google.

Now, for the new Google channel to work, your store must meet a few requirements. You can evaluate the requirements while setting up the Google channel to determine whether you need to make any adjustments to the online store or delivery settings.

Configuration Steps:

1. From Shopify admin, go to Sales channels > Google, and click Add sales channel.
2. Click Connect Google Account, and then select a Google account or create a new one. Allow Shopify to access your Google account information.
3. Review the setup requirements, and make the required changes.
4. Now, select or create a Merchant Center account:

Select a Merchant Account from the drop-down list. To avoid approval delays, select the account that was connected to the old Google channel.

In case, no Merchant Center account, click Create new and complete the process from Google Merchant Center.

1. Verify your account as the Merchant Center account owner.

From Verify it’s your section, enter your phone number, select country, and click Get code for a verification code.

From Verify it’s your window, enter the 6-digit code received via text message.

Click Verify.

1. Click Select beside Target market to set up the selling region, and then select a target market and the language. The currency settings get determined by the countries and regions available. The languages available for those supported by Google, and depend on the target market.
2. If you’re setting up paid marketing on Google, click Select > Shipping options, and then select automated or manual shipping rate configuration from the drop-down menu:

To sync your shipping rates from Shopify, select Automatically import shipping settings and then click Save. Learn more about using Google Merchant Center to sync your shipping prices.

To set up your shipping rates in Google Merchant Center, select Manually set up shipping settings in Google Merchant Center and then click Save.

1. Optional: set your product title and description preferences for products synced with Google. Learn more about optimizing your product titles and descriptions for Google Shopping.

After you’ve completed the setup, all of the products in your online store will commence syncing with Google. Merchandise synced to Google Merchant Center via Shopify’s Google channel can show on relevant Google surfaces absolutely free for qualifying stores.

How to automatically upload from Shopify to Google Shopping Merchant Center?

Sell and upload your Products in bulk to Google Shopping by creating automated data upload from Shopify to Google Merchant Center account by using third-party google shopping data feed manager.

• Steps, in short, to automatically upload data to Google Shopping
• Enable public downloads in the third-party google shopping data feed manager settings.
• Create new export in the third-party google shopping data feed manager app.
• Start the export and copy exported files link.
• Setup import in the Google Merchant Center.