Posted:
Cross-posted from the Google Inside AdWords Blog

The holiday season is a time of the year when many of us spend hours finding the perfect gifts. It’s also a time when knowing that an online retailer is trustworthy is more important than ever. That’s where Google Trusted Stores comes in - we’re spreading holiday cheer by helping people find the best online stores and shop with confidence.

Google Trusted Stores is a free certification program to highlight retailers that offer a consistently great shopping experience. Qualifying merchants display a badge on their website, and Google stands behind these stores by offering $1,000 of free purchase protection. Since we introduced the program last year, we’ve been working hard to expand it, including launching a new integration with seller ratings on AdWords, updating the badge with more helpful information for shoppers, and broadening store participation around the world.

Shopper feedback powering seller ratings

Google Trusted Stores now helps to power seller ratings, which show on AdWords text ads as well as Product Listing Ads on Google Shopping. This integration provides shoppers with valuable information, while giving participating retailers a free and easy way to earn the ratings they deserve. Advertisers who display seller ratings on their ads typically see a boost in AdWords click-through rates, with higher ratings generally resulting in higher click-through rates.

Providing helpful information at shoppers’ fingertips

In the US, Google Trusted Stores now provides shoppers with an upgraded store performance summary that appears when they hover over the badge on a merchant’s website. The summary includes helpful returns, delivery, and customer support responsiveness metrics provided by StellaService, a company that objectively measures the customer service experience by shopping anonymously at online stores.

More confident shoppers fueling global expansion
Millions of people now see the Google Trusted Stores badge on retailer sites and in Google ads every day. In fact, we’ve more than tripled US store participation in the last year. Because shoppers value the badge, many of these stores are seeing sales growth. For instance, OnlineShoes measured a 4.2% sales increase from the Google Trusted Stores badge, and AutoAnything saw an increase of 5.2%.

Given the great shopper and retailer response in the US, we’ve started to expand Google Trusted Stores around the world. We recently introduced pilot programs in the UK, France, Germany, and Australia, each with a collection of excellent merchants such as Schuh (UK), Spartoo.com (France), PEARL (Germany), and Kogan (Australia). (Note - only shoppers located in a particular country will see the badge for that country.)

Learn more 
To learn more about the program, please visit our website. If you’re a US retailer, you can apply to become a Google Trusted Store. If you are a retailer outside the US, please let us know you’re interested here: UK, France, Germany, Australia.

Happy Holidays and Happy Shopping!

Posted by Brian Marquardt, Group Product Manager, Google Shopping 
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Posted:
Last year, we introduced Google Trusted Stores in the US to help consumers shop online with confidence while creating new opportunities for businesses to build trust and loyalty with their customers. Since then, we’ve been working hard to bring the program to more countries around the world. Last week, we launched Google Trusted Stores pilot programs in the UK (Google Certified Shops) and France (Google Marchands de confiance). And today, we’re introducing a pilot of Google Trusted Stores in Australia.

Google Trusted Stores is a program that helps shoppers identify online stores that offer a great shopping experience. For retailers, it creates an opportunity to differentiate their business, attract new customers, and increase sales by displaying a Trusted Stores badge, awarded to merchants that demonstrate a strong track record of on-time shipping and excellent customer service. When a shopper hovers over the badge on the merchant’s site, they’ll see helpful performance metrics, plus information about free purchase protection from Google. Here’s what the badge looks like in Australia:


Our goal with Google Trusted Stores is to give shoppers the reassurance they need to shop confidently online at a broad set of stores. And we also aim to help excellent merchants expand their e-commerce businesses. Based on the success stories that we’ve seen in the US, we expect that participating in Google Trusted Stores will drive meaningful increases in online sales in other countries as well.

For the international pilot programs, we’re proud to be working with a great set of retailers in each country (please note - you’ll only see the badge for a particular country if you are located in that country):

Australia:

UK:

France:

Google Trusted Stores is entirely free, both for shoppers and merchants. If you’re an international retailer and interested in the program, please let us know here: AU, UK, FR. US retailers can apply here.

Posted by Brian Marquardt, Group Product Manager, Google Shopping
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Posted:
(Cross-posted on the Google Commerce Blog)

One of the great things about online shopping is that it offers the opportunity to find just what you’re looking for, at a terrific price. But, shoppers often tell us they’re nervous about purchasing from unfamiliar online stores. Is this store trustworthy? How reliable is their shipping? Do they have good customer service? What happens if something goes wrong?

Today we’re announcing the launch of Google Trusted Stores, a new pilot program that helps shoppers identify online merchants that offer a great shopping experience.

The Google Trusted Store badge is awarded to e-commerce sites that demonstrate a track record of on-time shipping and excellent customer service. When visiting a qualifying store, shoppers can hover over the Google Trusted Store badge and see metrics on the store’s shipping and customer service performance.

 

To participate in the program, merchants voluntarily share data about shipments, and Google collects customer service metrics when shoppers seek Google’s help with a problem.

When a shopper makes a purchase at a Google Trusted Store, they have the option to select free purchase protection from Google. Then, if a problem arises with their purchase, they can request Google’s help, and Google will work with the merchant and customer to address the issue. As part of this, Google offers up to $1,000 lifetime purchase protection for eligible purchases.


Starting today, you’ll begin seeing the badge at a handful of online stores, including O.co, Wayfair, BabyAge.com, and Beach Audio. During this pilot, you may occasionally see a different version of the badge on these sites - or no badge at all - while we perform tests to measure the impact of the program.

Over the coming months, we plan to expand the program to include more stores. If you’re an online merchant interested in participating, please fill out this form. To learn more about Google Trusted Stores, visit www.google.com/trustedstores.
Posted by Tom Fallows, Group Product Manager, Google Commerce Team
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