Google announced on July 23, 2020 that it would stop charging sellers a commission for purchases completed through Buy on Google, beginning with a U.S. pilot. The company planned to extend the change to all eligible U.S. sellers over the coming months and directed interested merchants to a waitlist. This went beyond the free product listings announced in April: it changed a charge on the transaction itself, rather than just the cost of getting a product seen. It was not an announcement that every merchant could immediately use commission-free checkout. [S1][S2]

Free discovery and checkout on Google serve different purposes. In its April 21 announcement, Google said the Shopping tab would consist primarily of free listings, available whether or not a merchant advertised. Paid campaigns could run alongside those listings. The July announcement describes free listings and Shopping ads as ways to send shoppers to a retailer’s own website, while Buy on Google lets them buy directly on Google. A merchant’s choice of where to complete the sale therefore remains separate from whether it pays to advertise. [S1][S2]

Merchants would also be able to keep some familiar services. Google named Shopify for inventory and order management, and PayPal and Shopify for payment processing, as the initial outside providers in its opening of the platform. Google’s stated aim was to let retailers keep using those tools when selling directly on Google. Removing Google’s commission and choosing a payment processor are separate decisions; the announcement does not establish that those third-party services are free. [S1]

There was a data-entry component, too. Google said it was enabling commonly used product-feed formats so retailers could connect inventory without reformatting their data. It also announced an option to pull product details, including images and technical specifications, from its existing database. These features target the work of bringing a catalogue into another sales channel. They are Google’s description of the proposed tools, not a finding that every merchant’s feed will work unchanged or that a particular store will save a measured number of hours. [S1]

For a small retailer, the practical comparison is between sending a shopper to its own checkout and completing the purchase on Google using supported services. The July plan would remove Google’s commission from that second route, but supplies neither a complete operating-cost estimate nor a sales forecast for the store. Google described a U.S.-first rollout and looked toward international launches later in 2020 and in 2021. A seller outside the pilot still needed access before the new fee structure could affect its orders. [S1]

Source documents

  1. Buy on Google is now open and commission-freehttps://blog.google/products-and-platforms/products/shopping/buy-on-google-is-zero-commission/
  2. It’s now free to sell on Googlehttps://blog.google/products-and-platforms/products/shopping/its-now-free-to-sell-on-google/