If you run an e-commerce website and have made use of Google’s Merchant Centre (a free product listing tool from the search engine giants) then the impending news of charges for this service may come as an unwelcome surprise.
From October 1st 2012, the United States will change over to Google Shopping and the UK equivalent is expected to land in early 2013. In short, Google Shopping will charge merchants for listings that have previously been free i.e. you’ll need to link a Google AdWords account to your Merchant Centre account in order to keep showing up for the Shopping results.
For those advertisers who already have Product Listing Ads / Extensions in place, you too can expect to see some differences in the way that these appear and function within the new confines of Google Shopping. These are as yet unclear but we estimate that there will be a greater degree of control from Google’s perspective and they will be far more stringent in terms of the accuracy of product listings.
Will this affect you as an advertiser or user of the current Merchant Centre? Do you find that Product Listing ads and Product Extensions work for you? We’d love to hear your thoughts on this.

