Google announced that it is offering promotional credit to merchants in Australia, Japan, Brazil, Italy, France, The Netherlands, The UK, Germany, and Switzerland to make the transition to Google Shopping as it rolls out to these countries.

Merchants in said countries can apply to create Product Listing Ads (the basis for the Google Shopping model) for their products by April 12 to qualify. They can also qualify for a monthly credit for 10% of their Product Listing Ad spend.

“Last month we announced the international rollout of the new Google Shopping model built on Product Listing Ads,” says Google Shopping VP of Product Management, Sameer Samat. “Starting in February 2013, Google Shopping in ten more countries will be transitioning to a new experience built on Product Listing Ads. We believe these changes, and the improved user experience, will create new opportunities for merchants and help retailers of all sizes attract more customers to their stores. The new model will be rolled out completely by the end of Q2 2013.”

“In an effort to improve the data quality on Google Shopping, we have updated our international feed specifications,” says Samat. “These changes will take effect in March 2013. They will align our global product feeds more closely and enable us to surface better results to users. Advertisers who are using the reduced Product Ads feed spec will need to bring their feeds into compliance with these new requirements. For more information on the upcoming changes, please visit the Help Center.”

Google will release a new set of Google Shopping program policies in January.

In the meantime, Bing is encouraging shoppers not to get “Scroogled”.