Google UCP Update Lets Merchants Enable Cart Transfer To Site via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern
All Paid Media PPC News Social MediaAdvertising Video Advertising Columns Ask A PPC ExpertNEW PPC Pulse Webinar ChatGPT Ads Or GEO: What To Buy, What To Earn Audit where ChatGPT places your brand, then get the rule for when Ads win, when GEO wins, and when running both beats either one. Digital Marketing All Digital Marketing Analytics & Data Ecommerce Lead Generation Content Marketing Social Platforms Google YouTube Reddit LinkedIn TikTokNEW WordPress Other CMS Platforms Webinar Tactical Solutions For The Biggest AI Search Measurement Challenges Walk away with a prioritized set of AI search visibility metrics and the tactical steps to start reporting on them. SEJ Live Webinars Rundowns PodcastNEW Ebooks All Resources Webinar A New Place To Look: Where Your Next AI Citations & Clicks Come From Learn how to turn real customer language into AEO insights, FAQ content, and measurable AI citations and clicks with CallTrackingMetrics. Google is rolling out cart transfer and checkout testing in the Merchant Center UCP hub, plus a YouTube ads beta and wider AI insights. SEJ STAFF Matt G. Southern 12 hours ago ⋅ 5 min read SEJ STAFF Matt G. Southern Senior News Writer at Search Engine Journal Bio Follow 97 READS Google is rolling out cart transfer and expanded checkout testing in the Merchant Center hub for the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP). Merchants who use the hub for UCP-powered checkout can turn on a path that lets shoppers move items from Google to the merchant’s own site to finish buying. The new options are gradually rolling out in the U.S., with Australia and Canada to follow early next year, according to a holiday shopping post from Ashish Gupta, Google’s VP and GM of Merchant Shopping. The post also says UCP already enables direct checkout for hundreds of thousands of brands and retailers across Google. It opens a U.S. beta of Business Agent for YouTube ads as well, and takes the AI performance insights report to five countries. Google’s developer docs list cart transfer as a capability named Transfer to merchant cart, which a merchant turns on by supporting the Cart API. The docs now include a checklist for that option that skips full product feed setup, product warnings, and customer support details. Plus, there’s a sandbox available in the same tab where you can test cart and checkout requests that Google might send. The Cart capability isn’t new; I mentioned it as a draft in March. In its Google Marketing Live post in May, Google mentioned that shoppers could transfer items directly to a merchant’s site. Merchants with hub access can choose the transfer feature as part of Merchant Center validation. The hub is being gradually introduced across the U.S., with Australia and Canada next in line for expansion next year, according to the Merchant Center help page the post links to, which also names cart transfer and enhanced checkout flow testing. Merchants just need to complete the technical setup, submit an interest form, and wait to be selected to start using the hub. In its post, Google says analytics will soon be part of the UCP hub. The developer docs, last updated September 3, describe a UCP Analytics Reporting dashboard, found in the same Merchant Center tab. This feature is available, the docs say, to all merchants with UCP enabled and the Performance role, offering insights into the checkout process, from clicking the Buy button to completing a purchase, plus metrics like average order value and cancellations. It also provides account linking information and showcases top-selling UCP products. This data isn’t accessible through the Merchant API yet, the docs note. Business Agent went live in Search on Jan. 12, when Google launched it with UCP. The AI performance insights report in Merchant Center is now open to merchants in Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, and the U.S. The post’s heading calls the report generally available. The help page says it’s currently available for English-language queries in those five countries, covers organic AI traffic only, and lists no click metric. I explained the pilot in July when it was limited to select U.S. accounts. The report provided guidance to merchants on which product attributes to include, but it did not indicate whether AI Mode sent any visitors to their site. That hasn’t changed. The cart transfer is here to support retailers by addressing the concerns they shared back in January about what they lose when transactions happen on Google, which I wrote about at the time. One retailer pointed out that customers never visit the store, see accessory suggestions from other sellers, and feel less connected to the brand. The transfer pathway helps customers go directly to the merchant’s checkout page with their cart ready. AI performance insights and the UCP analytics dashboard measure at different levels of depth. AI performance insights reports share of voice, frequency, and products showing. The UCP analytics dashboard, where the developer docs say it’s open, starts at clicks on the Buy button and counts purchases. The UCP hub options are rolling out gradually in the U.S. now, with Australia and Canada early next year. The UCP integration tab in Merchant Center is where the new options appear. Whether the hub’s analytics dashboard is live yet is the open question. Merchants who already have the UCP integration tab can check for an Analytics tab themselves. Add SEJ as a preferred source on Google Read Full Bio SEJ STAFF Matt G. Southern Senior News Writer at Search Engine Journal See short video versions of news stories on YouTube and TikTok. Matt G. Southern is the Senior News Writer at ... Learn how to connect search, AI, and PPC into one unstoppable strategy. Preparing For The Feedless Future With Google Merchant Center Next Transformation Complete: Google's New AI Shopping Experience Verticalizes Search How To Recover From A Google Update (A Checklist) Join 75,000+ Digital Leaders. Learn how to connect search, AI, and PPC into one unstoppable strategy. Learn how to connect search, AI, and PPC into one unstoppable strategy. In a world ruled by algorithms, SEJ brings timely, relevant information for SEOs, marketers, and entrepreneurs to optimize and grow their businesses -- and careers.
Source: Search Engine Journal
This article has been carefully curated and reformatted for educational and informational purposes. Full credit goes to the original publisher.
📚 Visit more helpful articles on Joab Peters Blog
No comments