A little over a year ago, ahead of the 2016 holiday shopping season, Google enabled integrations between Google Merchant Center and three e-commerce platforms. Those integrations are soon coming to an end.
Through the integrations, merchants using BigCommerce, Magento or PrestaShop could directly connect their product catalogs to Google Merchant Center. This week, Google began emailing customers taking advantage of the integrations that support for those direct imports will end as of March 20, 2018, Sales & Orders reported Wednesday.
A copy of one of the emails received by Sales & Orders says that Google is ending the partnerships “in order to better focus on solutions that will make the Shopping ads onboarding a more seamless experience. We’re continuing to work with e-commerce platforms to explore more frictionless integration opportunities.”
For those currently direct-uploading feeds, the apps enabling them (Google Shopping app for BigCommerce, for example) and any associated feeds will stop working as of March 20. Merchants using the Google solution will need to use an alternative method or other app supported by their platform.
Source: Sales & Orders
A Google spokesperson said the company has no further comment at this time.
(Update 1-26) A BigCommerce spokesperson said, “BigCommerce is working closely with Google to ensure a smooth transition for all merchants impacted by Google’s decision to retire its Google Shopping App. Several free and paid Google Shopping tools are available in the Bigcommerce App Marketplace, and detailed instructions for migrating to a new solution are available to assist merchants with the transition.”
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