A Guide to Google Merchant Center Next
As of September 2024, Google have retired their Merchant Center. In its place, they’ve launched the aptly named Merchant Center Next. The update comes with significant changes but is designed to simplify everything.
As with any marketing platform changes, it’s good to familiarize yourself with what’s new, what’s gone, and what’s changed. That way, you’ll know how to get the most out of it. Here’s everything you need to know about Google Merchant Center Next.
What Is Google Merchant Center Next?
Google Merchant Center Next is the new and improved version of the classic Merchant Center.
As with the old Merchant Center, Merchant Center Next is Google’s tool for businesses to manage how their products appear on Google, such as in free listings and Google Shopping ads. It also provides insights about your business, your products, and the overall market your brand is in.
Merchant Center Next is an essential tool for luxury brands to showcase their products across Google’s platform, including YouTube and beyond. It also helps luxury brands to maintain a product feed that syncs inventory with ads in real time, creating a seamless experience for high-ticket e-commerce customers.
What's Different With Merchant Center Next?
Whenever there’s a big update to a tool you use regularly, the first want to know what the differences are. Here are the key changes to Merchant Center luxury brands should be aware of.
A SIMPLER INTERFACE
Merchant Center Next looks different to the classic Merchant Center. It will take some getting used to, but it’s designed to be cleaner and better organized. Some of the important day-to-day functions have been moved and renamed, but don’t worry, we’ll dig deeper into those changes in the “What are the key changes to the UX?” section below.
AUTOMATIC PRODUCT DISCOVERY
Merchant Center Next allows Google to automatically pull products from your website and include them in free listings, even if they weren’t in your feed.
While this may sound helpful, it could lead to complications for luxury brands. For instance, Google may pull duplicate products, products with incomplete data, or items that marketers were intentionally excluding from product feeds. This may lead to large proportions of disapproved items in the diagnostics section.
To avoid this, brands should disable this feature if not needed and ensure they monitor their diagnostics to catch any issues early.
If you’d prefer to keep this feature on, we recommend only viewing the diagnostics for items on shopping ads. However, you won’t always have this option across the Merchant Center Next platform, which can make monitoring your product feed more difficult.
BETTER ISSUE RESOLUTION
A fantastic improvement in Merchant Center Next is the ability to resolve issues within the platform itself. Previously, brands had to contact Google support to address problems such as incorrect landing page statuses. Now, you can request reviews directly on the platform, saving time.
STREAMLINED PRODUCT DIAGNOSTICS
In the previous Merchant Center, the product diagnostics overview showed a whole timeline of product diagnostics and how they changed over time. This wasn’t overly valuable, so they’ve removed the timeline to only show the current product diagnostics, including:
Approved
Not approved
Limited
Under review
EDITABLE PRODUCTS
You can now edit product details directly in Google Merchant Center Next by clicking on a product in the “All products” section. From there, you can click “Edit product” and make changes to attributes such as the:
Product title
Product description
URL
Brand name
Etc.
Previously, you were only able to upload or delete products.
A NEW METRIC CALLED “CLICK POTENTIAL”
A new metric has just dropped. We know, there are already a lot of metrics to be tracked. But this could actually be extremely useful in the long run.
Merchant Center Next has introduced a metric called “Click Potential” which shows you the potential for users to click on your product listing ads. It’s calculated by comparing your product performances and can help you optimize product listings that might not get many clicks.
What Are the Key Changes to the UX?
Navigating updated tools can be overwhelming at first. To avoid getting lost, here’s a rundown of all the main navigational and design changes.
Diagnostics graph: In the classic version, the diagnostics graph was front and center. Now, it’s tucked away under Products > Needs Attention > View History on the middle right side of the screen. This graph is essential for monitoring the health of your feed, so luxury brands should take note of its new location.
Issue management: The section that shows the types of issues and the products they’re associated with used to be under the diagnostics graph. It’s now located under Products > Needs Attention > Show All Fixes.
Feeds access: Product feeds can now be accessed under Products > View Data Sources.
Growth tab: The Growth tab that was in the classic Merchant Center is gone. It’s currently unknown whether it may be rolled out in a future update, or it may be gone for good.
Best sellers report: This used to be under the Growth tab in the classic Merchant Center. It’s now within Popular Products Insights. Click the Analytics tab > Products > Popular products.
Price competitiveness report: This also used to be under the Growth tab, which has now gone. You’ll now find it under the Analytics tab > Products > Pricing.
What Should Luxury Brands Do to Adapt to These Changes?
As you know, maintaining control over product listings is critical for e-commerce, especially for luxury brands. Mismanagement of listings, particularly during high-traffic times like the holiday season, can be costly.
Here’s how you can adapt to the new Google Merchant Center Next quickly and smoothly:
Allow time to adapt: Don’t expect to get used to the new layout overnight. Set aside some time to familiarize yourself with the new platform, and ensure your whole team is well-versed in the updates.
Provide feedback to Google: If you find that important features are hidden or gone, don’t hesitate to report back to Google. With enough input, the platform might evolve to better meet the needs of luxury e-commerce brands.
Disable automatic product discovery: At least until you have a better understanding of the feature, it would be wise to switch it off. This will help prevent duplicate or incomplete listings from showing, which can be harmful to luxury brands.
We Can Help Manage Your Google Merchant Center
Navigating platform updates can be confusing and time-consuming, but with the right guidance, luxury brands can still make the most of Google’s powerful shopping tools.
Block & Tam’s Shopping & Product Feed Management specialists are on hand to help luxury businesses optimize their product feeds and stay ahead of changes.
If you need help managing Merchant Center Next, we’re here to support you. Work with our Product Management team today.
Merchant Center Next FAQs
What Is Classic Merchant Center?
Google’s Classic Merchant Center is a previous version of Merchant Center Next. Merchant Center Next replaced Classic Merchant Center as of September 30th, 2024.
Can I Switch Back to Classic Merchant Center?
No. The Classic Merchant Center went out of action on September 30th, 2024.
What Is the Difference Between Merchant Center Next, Google Business Profile, and Google Ads?
Merchant Center Next is a tool to manage your product feed and how your products appear across Google platforms, including the search results, and YouTube.
Your Google Business Profile is a profile for a physical store on Google, sharing things like location, opening times, and a website URL.
Google Ads is how you advertise your business on Google. It can be connected to both Merchant Center Next and Google Business Profile to boost traffic to your website and store.
Where Can I See Account-Level Warnings and Other Setup or Policy Issues?
The Diagnostics page has been renamed to the Needs Attention tab, which can be found under the Products page.
To see account-level issues, go to Products > Needs Attention > View setup and policy issues.
Where Is the History of Diagnostics?
Diagnostics has been renamed to Needs Attention, which you can find on the Products page.
To see historic product status, click Products > Needs Attention > View History.
Where Can I See Supplemental Product Data Sources?
You’ll find supplemental product data under Settings > Data sources. If you want to use supplemental data sources or rules in your product data, make sure to add “Advanced data source management” in “Add-ons”.
