Froogle From Google

[Mr Ribbit]

Hi everyone,

We've registered with Froogle, Google's shopping search engine and we think it's brilliant. I don't just mean to sell through, I mean to buy on as well. Mrs P is completely addicted to it!

I wanted to let any budding entrepeneurs out there (Goose Girl, hope you spot this) that this service is FREE! Uploading the info is pretty straightforward, the format that buyers see is a bit like eBay but with fixed prices. When someone clicks on the listing it sends it directly to your website! No commision to pay, no fees, nothing! The best of it is the fact that because it's part of Google, your listings are part of one of the largest search engines in the world and it even seems as though you are given extra visibility on the Google search engine itself!

Just a tip, if you want to deal with the US and be on Froogle US as well, then you need to list everything in US Dollars. We have two official listings (Merchant IDs) - one for the UK and one for the US, they are identical except the price is in dollars for the US site.

Brilliant site which we hope will help anyone else here who wants to increase their visibility on the WWW.

[Mr Ribbit]

Whoops, forgot to mention how to find it. Easiest thing to do is to go to Google (I use the google.co.uk one but it's the same for the google.com site) and one of the options is Froogle, that's it.

For directlinks go to : -

http://froogle.google.co.uk/ for the UK site

OR

http://froogle.google.com/ for the USA site

:thumbs:

[goosegirl]

The Dragon,

Thankyou for that information, I,ll go and have a look.
:thumbs:
GG.

[JJ]

Thanks Mr D..

Going to have a sneaky peek now.

I am selling on Ebay at the mo, trying to make enough cash to buy some gorgeous boots I want from next and get my girls some stocking fillers for xmas... so selling any thing anywhere sounds good to me!!!


JJ :)

[Ribbit]

I am, as Mr D said, totally addicted to Froogle. I'm using the dot com site a lot to buy stuff, much more than the UK site... but that's probably because the UK site is a new addition (there was only the US site before) so it's not had so much time to catch on. I'm hoping they add a French one too eventually.

Every little helps when you're starting out, and we know from the statistics site we use that people are finding us via the google search engine, so it's working. :thumbs:

One thing though... froogle doesn't seem to list everything from a particular site/seller... it's a bit hit and miss that everything you upload will appear. But it's free... so who am I to complain!

Mrs P :D

[JJ]

Hi P

Can you link through to your own website via Froogle????...

can't believe it's free!! :bigeyes: me loves a chance to sell for free!!


JJ

[Mr Ribbit]

Hi JJ and GG,

Google name for the data uploads is a 'Feed'. The feed is a text file (tab delimited) and the info needed is the web link to your product (product_url), the name/simple description of the item (name ), the product description (description), the web link to the product image (image_url), the category from your shop (category) e.g. English Classic Novels, Chinese Porcelain or Tri-Band Mobile Phones, and finally, the price of the item (price). The bits in brackets that I've just typed are the actual headings you have to use for the 'Feed'.

The way we do it is we put the data into a spreadsheet then export the data as a tab delimited text file (dead simple to do). We then upload it (there's a standard Froogle upload page which is dead simple too) and then a few hours later most of the items are listed on Froogle, searchable by anyone! :wow:

We were gobsmacked because Froogle automatically uses all the text that you put into the data as searchable information! When we put in some standard searches for our type of items our store often appears either in top position, the first page of a search or within the first five pages if it's a really common term that is searched.

Let us know how you get on if you use this service - we're really excited about it!

[goosegirl]

The Dragon,

It sounds great.

GG.

[Mr Ribbit]

Hi GG,

It's definitely been free for us and I've just checked the Merchant set up instructions here (https://www.google.com/froogle/merchants/getting_started.html#1) and they are the same as the ones we signed up for.

We went through Google UK and Froogle UK first, then got Froogle to set up a second Merchant ID specially for the US market.

Try going through the UK site if you haven't already. :yes:

[goosegirl]

The Dragon,

Sorry I,ve read it again, and it is FREE. The example was the product price I was looking at. Silly me I,m still tired from clearing my shop out.

GG.