Google expands Merchant Center with AI-powered insights and reports

Google will introduce new artificial intelligence-based tools in its Merchant Center in time to make it easier for retailers to sell during the holiday season.

The tools include new insights and updates on shopping ads, the company said in a preview of a blog post emailed to PYMNTS on Tuesday (Aug. 27).

“With the new Merchant Center Insights tools, brands that can remain flexible and turn data into decisions will make the most of the shorter holiday shopping season,” Google said in the post, noting that Black Friday is five days later this year than last year.

One of the new tools will display popular shopping queries, ranked by popularity and sorted by topic and product, to help Merchant Center users identify shopping trends, the post said. This tool will roll out globally in the coming weeks.

“This means you can capitalize on viral moments, make more informed inventory decisions, and ensure your product descriptions use the same terms shoppers are using,” the post said.

Another new tool will display summaries of recent product performance at the top of the Analytics tab and answer retailers' specific questions about their product data with new custom reports, the post said. This tool will be available in the U.S.

“This tool uses generative AI to translate a user's query into a custom report that highlights their own performance data,” the post says. “This means you can skip the process of manually creating custom reports when you need something bespoke.”

A new third tool will automatically sync store availability information from retailers' websites and integrate it with Merchant Center to display store details in their Google ads, the post said.

“This means less manual labor for you and a more convenient, modern shopping experience for your customers,” the post said.

Google announced in July that it would transition all retailers to a new, AI-powered version of its Merchant Center in time for them to benefit from the updates before the holiday shopping season.

Previous updates to Merchant Center included the introduction of visual brand profiles in Google Search and the expansion of the AI-powered content creation platform, Product Studio.

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