What is Google Shopping Actions and What Does it Cost to Sell on it?

Updated March, 2020You may have heard about Google's new marketplace, Google Shopping Actions (formerly known as Google Express) which started as a grocery-only marketplace and expanded beyond grocery in the summer of 2018. It now offers a large array of categories and merchants such as Target, Costco, and Petco with featured storefronts.So what exactly is Google Shopping Actions? It's a Google program that allows merchants to surface products across different Google platforms such as their online marketplace named "Google Shopping" which is a Google-hosted checkout flow operating on the pay-per-sale model. Essentially, it's Google's version of Amazon but with access to all of Google's properties such as YouTube and the Google Home. What's unique about Google Shopping is the branded experience is allows the seller, which is a major differentiator to Amazon where the buyer is typically unaware of what seller they're purchasing from.

Many industry experts are expecting Google to give Amazon a run for it's money, and we'd have to agree. Approximately 40% of product searches occur on Google and they're slowly being funneled to the Google Shopping Actions experience. As you can imagine, there's a lot of opportunity with the billions of daily searches occurring on Google.Given that Google Shopping Actions runs on the pay-per-sale model and not the pay-per-click model (like Google Ads), you may be wondering what the pay-per-sale commission is. As of the writing of this article, most categories are charged at 12% or less, aside from the jewelry category which is 15%. Here's the breakdown:

How do you start selling on Google Express? You have to apply. Here's quick guide compiled by Zentail that outlines the process.