Google Kills eCommerce Integrations for Magento, BigCommerce, and PrestaShop

In October 2016, Google announced a partnership with three shopping platforms, Magento, BigCommerce, and PrestaShop, to make selling online easier.

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The partnership involved a more straightforward integration of sending product listings on those platforms to the Google Shopping feed through the Google Merchant Center.

If you’re using any one of these platforms (or if you’re thinking of using one of these platforms), our new partnerships let you easily submit your product information to Google Shopping and quickly reach millions of new customers searching for what you sell.

From Google Announcement

By utilizing this feature, eCommerce sellers on those shopping platforms could add their products to Google Shopping with just a few clicks. It was indeed a time saver and a simple method to launch products on Google Shopping.

It All Ends March 20, 2018

Google sent out emails over the last week to merchants using this feature stating:

“We are writing you today to let you know that we’re retiring the existing Google built ecommerce platform imports with BigCommerce, PrestaShop, and Magento. We’re retiring these imports in order to better focus on solutions that will make the Shopping ads onboarding a more seamless experience. We’re continuing to work with ecommerce platforms to explore more frictionless integration opportunities.”

Google Email

The email further provides links for sellers to explore the marketplaces on these platforms for extensions or marketplace features that can help the seller to continue to feed products to the Google Merchant Center.

BigCommerce is taking an active role in helping their clients. One of the perks using BigCommerce instead of open source solutions is they can provide the necessary help and resources in the transition.

“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.”

Six weeks is not a lot of time to try out and launch a new integration. Impacted merchants should look at the extension/plug-in offers by their shopping cart provider to find a replacement solution to continue to send product data to Google Shopping.

• BigCommerce – Sell on Google Shopping
• PrestaShop – Add-On Marketplace
• Magento – Magento Marketplace

We really suggest you do not wait and migrate to another solution as quickly as possible. Any such change often comes with small hiccups and you don’t want to miss out on sales because you ran into small technical glitches.

Does this Google change impact you? Drop us a line in the comments section below. If you have any tips for other eCommerce sellers, we know they would appreciate it.