Fast and easy checkout for Android apps selling physical goods and services

Shopping for physical goods on mobile devices is a difficult experience for consumers, leading to 97% of mobile shoppers abandoning their shopping carts. Last October, we launched a Google Wallet API to speed up payments on mobile sites. Today, we are inviting U.S. developers to sign up for our new Google Wallet Instant Buy Android API, which makes buying in native Android apps fast and easy.

The Instant Buy API is designed for merchants and developers selling physical goods and services, who already have a payment processor and are looking to simplify the checkout experience for their customers. Developers selling digital goods within their apps will continue to use Google Play In-app Billing, which offers full payment processing capability, including support for carrier billing and gift cards.

The Instant Buy API provides Android developers with these important benefits:

• Fast checkout for Android users buying physical goods. Users who buy on Google properties have set up Google Wallet. They can now checkout in Android apps in as few as 2 clicks without having to manually enter their billing or shipping information. Google Wallet securely sends this information to the developer with the user's permission.
• Easy app registration. More logged in users. By implementing Google+ Sign-in along with Instant Buy, developers can enable users to sign-in directly with their Google account, instantly creating an app registration. Having more logged in users allows developers to deliver a highly engaging, personalized experience.
• More secure payments. All transactions are monitored for fraud 24/7 and covered by Google Wallet Purchase Protection to enable a safer shopping experience for your customers.
• Easy integration. No Google fees. Since Google is not processing payments or managing fulfillment, there are no additional fees or complex integrations.

Apps integrated with Google Wallet will require the latest version of Google Play Services, which is rolling out to all Android devices in the next day or so.

We'd like to thank our launch partners for integrating early and helping us create a great checkout experience for Android users:

• Airbnb lets you list, discover, and book unique accommodations worldwide.
• Booking.com is your key to the best deals on hotels, apartments, and more in over 41,000 destinations.
• Expedia helps 30 million travelers a month find what they are looking for. One traveler at a time.
• Fancy allows you to discover and buy goods from a crowd-curated catalog.
• GoPago live POS allows merchants to broadcast their business to customer smartphones, enabling customers to browse, order, and pay in advance.
• NFC Task Launcher lets you build macros on your phone that respond to your NFC, WiFi, and Bluetooth triggers.
• Priceline helps you book the best prices on hotels when you're on the go.
• Rue La La is the destination for the most desired brands and curated Boutiques at Members-only prices.
• Tabbedout lets you pay your restaurant or bar tab securely with your phone.
• Uber gets you a ride with a tap of a button. Request a pickup at your location, track your driver's progress, and pay seamlessly in-app.
• Wrapp lets you give free and paid gift cards from your top brands.

To learn more, please visit our Google Wallet for Business site. For the latest updates on Google Wallet please subscribe to our +Page.

Posted by Prakash Hariramani, Senior Product Manager, Google Wallet

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Updated Google Shopping feed specification

Last year, we announced the rollout of the new Google Shopping commercial model built on Product Listing Ads both in the United States and globally. We believe these changes, and the improved user experience, will create new opportunities for merchants and help retailers of all sizes attract more customers to their stores.

The quality of data provided by merchants is critical for achieving these goals. Therefore, we're announcing some changes to the Google Shopping Feed Specification:

• We are improving our support for merchant-defined multipack. For example, many consumer products like toothpaste are sold in custom multipacks. The feed specification now clarifies how such products should be submitted.
• We are moving towards a world with high-resolution displays. Therefore, we are also starting to recommend higher-quality images with at least 800 pixels in height and width to give users a better visual representation of advertised products.
• Some products like custom goods, vintage items, or collectibles don't have unique product identifiers. For such products, we are now introducing the 'identifier exists' attribute. Additionally, we have updated our requirements on unique product identifiers.
• We have updated our guidance for the description and color attributes to make them more precise and actionable.
• We now provide dedicated support for energy efficiency labels and unit pricing for merchants targeting countries in the European Union and Switzerland.
• Merchants promoting non-family safe items on family-safe websites can now tag individual items  as non-family safe.

Some of these changes won't be visible to Google Shopping users immediately. We want to give merchants enough time for preparation and adoption. We encourage merchants to use the test feeds feature or the feed debugger to ensure that their updated feeds can be processed correctly.

Merchants can review the new feed specifications and a summary of attribute requirements to help prepare for these changes. They should always make sure to comply with legal requirements while participating in the Google Shopping program.

Enforcement of new Google Shopping Feed Specifications

For accounts that are currently exempted from requiring unique product identifiers, Google Shopping will start enforcing these new requirements for unique product identifiers on July 15th, 2013 in the US, and September 16th, 2013 in all other target countries. Enforcement for all other accounts will start July 15th, 2013 for the US, France, Germany and the United Kingdom, and September 16th, 2013 for all other target countries. Non-compliant items might then be disapproved and disappear from Google Shopping.

Account level exemptions for unique product identifiers won’t be supported after the above mentioned dates – the 'identifier exists' attribute should be used instead.

Posted by Angelika Rohrer, Program Manager, Google Shopping

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Introducing the Google Wallet Mobile ATM

While payments are going digital, we realize that some daily consumer interactions will still require cash. So today, we’re excited to announce the release of the Google Wallet Mobile ATM.

The mobile ATM device easily attaches to most smartphones and dispenses money instantly and effortlessly– forever ending your search for the nearest bank or ATM. Just type in your personal pin code on your cell phone and access all your cash from the palm of your hand.

The Google Wallet Mobile ATM technology allows you to enter the amount of money you want to withdraw directly in your phone or use voice-activated dispenser.

                     
Unlike traditional ATM’s, the Google Wallet Mobile ATM even dispenses rare two and fifty dollar bills, as well as more practical one dollar bills. Perfect when confronted by a surprisingly talented “Hippy Mime Banjo Player” on a street corner.

If your mobile ATM is running low on funds, a self-driving, armored, hybrid vehicle will be alerted and dispatched to your location – arriving within minutes to quickly and safely refill their ATM.

We hope you enjoy having easy access to your cash.

Posted by Peter Hazlehurst, Product Management Director, Google Wallet

UPDATE: Happy April Fools Day! While we would all love this feature, technology cannot quite produce this... yet.

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Calling all SF Bay Area residents: help test our new local, same-day delivery service

We all rely on the web to turn our intentions into actions quickly and easily. From planning a spring break or a trip to the movies to finding the perfect gift for someone we love, the world is increasingly at our fingertips. And over the last few years, we've worked hard to bring the speed of the web to the real world. With Google Play, for example, you can now buy or rent books, movies and TV shows in seconds.

Today we're starting a new experiment, Google Shopping Express. It's a local delivery service that we hope will make it possible for you to get the items you order online the same day, and at a low cost. It's incredibly early days and so the service is only available to a small number of people in the Bay Area.

As a tester, you will be able to shop online, in a single place, from retailers such as Target, Walgreens, Staples, American Eagle and Toys“R”Us/Babies“R”Us -- along with locally distinct shops such as San Francisco’s Blue Bottle Coffee, and the Bay Area’s Palo Alto Toy & Sport and Raley’s Nob Hill Foods, and get your items delivered that same day. So hopefully, no more trips across town for simple errands.

If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area (in the city of San Francisco, and the Peninsula from San Mateo to San Jose) and would like to help test this new initiative, please sign up here. We’re still working out our long-term pricing plan but early testers will get six months of free, unlimited same-day delivery. The pilot will expand as we work out the kinks, so please stay tuned.

Posted by Tom Fallows, Product Management Director, Google Shopping Express

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A quicker, easier shopping experience with Google Shopper 3.2

Making informed shopping decisions should be easy, whether you're at home, in a store or on the go. That's why we launched Google Shopper in 2010 -- to make it easy for users to shop smarter. Today, we're making Google Shopper even more useful, with a new version for Android and iOS that makes it easier than ever to find great products at great prices, and more clearly view product details.

Need a new camera, but aren't quite sure which one is right for you? Google Shopper 3.2 allows you to see the most popular cameras on Google Shopping via a specialized result page.

Overwhelmed by choice? Google Shopper 3.2 provides you with the ability to use category-specific refinements to narrow down your search. This means that if you're looking for a point and shoot camera with a 10 Megapixel sensor, you can easily find the most popular cameras on Google Shopping which include that set of features.

Interested in a specific brand, store, price or other criteria? You can also refine your search in those ways, and the most popular products on Google Shopping that match those criteria will show.

Finally, once you've narrowed down your query to a few options, Google Shopper allows you to view detailed product information about each so that you can make an informed buying decision. In addition to reading that information, viewing reviews from across the web or watching video reviews from YouTube, you may find it useful to view multiple high-resolution product images in the new lightbox viewer.

         

You can download Shopper 3.2 for your Android device from Google Play, or for your iOS device from the App Store.

Posted by John-Shriver Blake, Product Manager, Google Shopper

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Reach smartphone users around the world with Google Shopping

People today are constantly connected, presenting a tremendous opportunity for retailers to deliver the right products to them across devices anytime, anywhere. We recently announced the release of enhanced campaigns to help advertisers reach customers in a multi-screen world. Today we're pleased to announce the Product Listing Ads are now eligible to appear on smartphones globally, extending the shopping experience already available desktops and tablets. When a user enters a shopping-related search, a commercial format that displays products in a single unit may appear above organic search results. This ad unit is labeled as a 'Sponsored' and displays rich product images, prices, retailers, and more. This mobile shopping experience will be available in all markets currently serving Product Listing Ads.

Below are a couple of examples of what a shopper might see when searching for a product from their phone.

In the image on the left, a user searching for a plaid tie may see an ad unit displaying three options. He can click any of them to learn more and buy, or click 'Shop on Google' to continue browsing on Google Shopping, as shown in the image on the right. From there, the user can look at an even wider variety of options from different retailers. He can review and compare images, prices, reviews, shopping options and other information. Perhaps he'll narrow his search down to plaid ties over $45, or filter to see just the selections available nearby. Finally, once the user has honed in on the perfect choice, he can easily complete his purchase on the retailer's site.

Ensure your products are eligible to display in this new unit for smartphones.

If you've already upgraded your Product Listing Ads to enhanced campaigns and made appropriate bid adjustments, your products will automatically be eligible to display in the new unit for smartphones.

If you haven't yet upgraded your Product Listing Ads to enhanced campaigns, we recommend you upgrade to increase coverage of your products and easily manage bids across devices, locations, and time of day - all from a single campaign.

Learn more in our upcoming mobile shopping webinar

Google Shopping and Enhanced Campaigns

March 14, 2013 at 10 a.m. PT (1 p.m. ET)

During this webinar, attendees will learn about how Google Shopping and Product Listing Ads work in concert with features that are part of enhanced campaigns. We will also discuss the latest Google Shopping user experience on smartphones and cover new multi-screen opportunities for retail advertisers.

Posted by Erica Sievert, Product Marketing Manager, Google Shopping

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Google Shopping global transition is underway

On February 13, Google Shopping results in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Japan, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Brazil, Australia, Switzerland and the Czech Republic began to transition to a new commercial experience built on Product Listing Ads. If you're a merchant in one of these countries and you're currently promoting your products on Google Shopping for free, you'll need to create a Product Listing Ad campaign to maintain your traffic and presence. You can learn more about this transition in our recent announcement.

Keep your products visible
To ensure that your products remain eligible for promotion on Google Shopping, we've built an easy way for you to create Product Listing Ads.

You can complete the following three simple steps in Merchant Center:

1. Set up a basic Product Listing Ad campaign. You'll be able to create a new AdWords account in Merchant Center if you don't already have one.
2. Customize your campaign. Set a daily budget and one single maximum cost-per-click bid. You can modify these settings any time after you create your campaign.
3. Provide your billing information. You'll be taken to your AdWords account to provide or confirm your billing information.

For a detailed step-by-step guide to getting started with Product Listing Ads and to apply for a promotional credit (available for a limited time only), please visit this page.

Promote your products across devices

With the recent launch of AdWords enhanced campaigns, it's now easier than ever to promote your products across devices. This is crucial in a world where people are constantly connected and moving from one device to another. We encourage you to upgrade existing product listing ad campaigns to an enhanced campaign with appropriate bid adjustments. 

If you need help getting started with Google Shopping, please visit the Google Shopping website or email us through this form.

Posted by Sameer Samat, Vice President of Product Management, Google Shopping

 

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