Update: Google Shopping Professional Plugin compatible with Shopware 5.5

Update of the Google Shopping Professional Plugin

With the update to version 4, we were able to make the popular Google Shopping Professional plugin available for Shopware version 5.5.

In this context, we also tweaked the plugin's performance a bit and were thus able to achieve an optimization of the export data. In addition, the plugin is now available as open source in the Shopware Store and can be installed as a trial version.

Google Shopping indispensable for shop operators

published on 04/18/2016

Once again, the indispensability of Google Shopping for online retailers is evident. As onlinehaendler-news.de reports, the Google service can record an increase in total revenue of 52 percent. In the first quarter of 2016, Google Shopping even recorded a plus of 171 percent in the mobile sector compared to the previous year. The backbone of this success is, of course, above all the Product Listing Ads.

In light of these figures, every online retailer should definitely react and export their products to Google Shopping. To be able to use the ads, a Google AdWords account and a Google Merchant Center account are required.

The Product Listing Ads are based on a product feed, which is why both accounts must be linked together. The product feed is uploaded via a CSV file and billed through the AdWords account when the ad is clicked. Compared to advertising placed in the conventional Google search, Google Shopping is still quite inexpensive.

Our Google Shopping Plugin for Shopware

The basis of every Google Shopping measure should be a comprehensive and always up-to-date data feed. Product name, category, prices, description, image, features, shipping costs, availability and EAN are data that absolutely must be maintained, because only then will the ads actually be displayed.

If you are a Shopware user, you not only enjoy the manifold advantages of this user-friendly shop system, but you can also export your products directly from your Shopware backend using our Google Shopping plugin. With our plugin, you also avoid the usual problems with product export such as duplicate content. Further advantages are the detailed processing of all meta data, even in the article's variants, and the bulk editing of extensive article stocks.

Do you have questions about our Google Shopping plugin? Then simply contact us!

Product data quality as a chance for higher revenue

published on 09/04/2015

Running and maintaining your own online shop is a lot of work. Every online retailer knows this. In addition: especially smaller shops do not generate the desired revenue on their own. It is quite clear that not only professional on-page optimization for the search engine provides a remedy here. Using other channels can also mean extra income for online retailers. Whether price comparison engines, Google Shopping or Amazon – those who use these sales channels enormously increase their chances of selling.

However, the external sales platforms must not be treated neglectfully. The product data should always be kept up to date and formulated clearly and understandably for both humans and machines. Only then can users actually find the products they are looking for, or can the "machine" answer a user's search query with the right product. For this, the product data must above all have four characteristics: current, correct, complete, understandable for users and algorithms.

SYNERGY NETWORKS GmbH delivers the right plugin

Common errors that lead to major misunderstandings can be easily corrected or, best of all, prevented from the start. That is why it is necessary to fill in all attributes conscientiously. EAN, dimensions, color, delivery time information are just some of the fields this concerns. Care should also be taken not to use any spaces in the EAN and to check special characters for their meaning. Otherwise this could lead to errors with the sales channels. For the user, the title and description should of course also be logical and understandable. Furthermore, it is essential to assign the product to the correct category.

With the Shopware plugin Google Shopping Professional from SYNERGY NETWORKS GmbH you are on the safe side for the Google Shopping sales platform.

Finally, the product data feed should of course not only be edited once, but regularly updated and adjusted.

The first SYNERGY NETWORKS Plugin

published on 08/14/2014

Many weeks, days and nights the two developers and programmers Christopher and Jens sat and tinkered on this plugin. They drank countless liters of coffee, emptied numerous jars of that one so delicious chocolate spread, blew cigarette smoke rings into the day and night sky several times, in order to arrive at this one point: THE FIRST SYNERGY NETWORKS PLUG-IN - Congratulations guys!

The idea for the plugin arose on the one hand from our everyday work in the field of e-commerce and the important and significant topic of "duplicate content" associated with it. On the other hand, the idea for the plugin solidified through our visit to the "Shopware Community Day 2014".

The starting situation

Many customers who approach us want an online shop with unique content that describes and presents the company and its products well. They also ask for a connected shop/company blog and/or want us to expand their presence on eBay and Amazon. We always recommend a holistic strategy in order to better position their products on the web and ultimately not only increase revenue and profit in the medium term, but keep it at a good level in the long term. We are aware that such a strategy cannot be implemented from one day to the next, and that the shop, as well as the blog and the products on eBay and Amazon, cannot be described within 2 to 3 days, and this is always raised as a topic in customer meetings. We take the time with each customer to explain to them what the strategy looks like and how it is structured, what all belongs to it and, above all, how we envision it in terms of time. And sure, for one or the other it cannot go fast enough, because after all, time is money. So that means a lot of work and time pressure for our content team, which has to write texts not only for the shop, but also for all other platforms.

The goal

In such a starting situation, it can only be the aspiration of every agency to keep the time expenditure as low as possible, because the competition is fierce. So how can certain processes be simplified or shortened? Since we work exclusively with the shop system from Shopware, it was clear; there must be a way to pass the desired information (article title, keywords, meta description, etc.) to the article from the backend, without constantly logging into the respective platforms (Google Shopping, Amazon, eBay) and filling in the fields there by hand.

The rest would now become technical talk that only the so-called nerds understand. That's why we'll spare ourselves that at this point and come straight to the end, or to the first result (of hopefully many more to follow), the "SYNERGY NETWORKS - Google Shopping Content Taxonomy Plug-In". The aspiration was and is that all important and necessary information can be passed along from the Shopware backend, whether to Google Shopping or, for example, Amazon. For Google Shopping, this is already possible with this Google Shopping Professional plug-in!

We hope to be able to announce further successes and plug-ins soon for the other platforms and with the support of the Shopware team and/or other developers and programmers. Until then, we wish you a lot of fun and hopefully easier working!