Google Introduces Multi-Client Accounts for Product Search

Google has introduced some new policies for marketplaces and aggregators on Google Product Search. They have also introduced multi-client accounts to help aggregators and marketplaces manage feeds for multiple sellers under a single account.

"By allowing marketplaces better control over their sellers’ product data, shoppers get more accurate and relevant information when they search for things to buy on Product Search, and individual sellers don’t need to submit their own feeds," says Paul Lee, Business Product Manager for Google Product Search. "The multi-client accounts allow aggregators and marketplaces to consolidate and manage data feeds and reporting for sub-accounts, submit changes more rapidly, and get more accurate Google Checkout badging at the seller level."

Starting December 1, Marketplaces and aggregators will be required to use multi-client accounts to submit and manager their sellers’ feeds. The new policies for marketplaces and aggregators can be found here.

Google also retired the "one at a time" upload option on Google Base. Those who have been using that are encouraged to submit through a data feed.

"For those providers who want Google to host a page for their item – for example, if you don’t have a website – just submit your data feed without anything in the "link" attribute, and we’ll create a Google Base page for your item," says Google Base Product Manager Ioannis Kalafatis.

They have made it easier to link Google Base accounts to Google Checkout. There’s a new page in the "settings" tab called "Checkout," where you can add accounts to Checkout by entering a Checkout Merchant ID.