Google Wallet is taking you to the beach

If you’re in New York this weekend, join the Google Wallet team for a trip to the beach! On Saturday, July 14th, we’ll be paying for round-trip train tickets on NJ Transit from Penn Station to Long Branch (including the Long Branch Beach entrance fee). Before you hit the sand, you’ll get the chance to see Google Wallet in action and use it to get your NJ Transit tickets at Penn Station.

The specially-scheduled Google Wallet train leaves at 9:00 am sharp, and your ticket will allow you to return from Long Branch at any time on July 14th (check NJ Transit’s website for scheduled route times). There’s limited room on the train, so be sure to get to Penn Station early to check out Google Wallet and get your free ticket to the beach!

Posted by Jo Hainsworth, Product Marketing Manager, Google Wallet

Terms: Train tickets only available through a demo of Google Wallet. Ticket covers a round trip ticket from Penn Station to Long Branch and the entrance fee to Long Branch Beach. Departure is 9:00 am on Saturday, July 14th, on a specially scheduled Google Wallet train. Tickets are not redeemable or exchangeable. Limited supply of tickets are available.

Introducing free ‘Search As You Type’ pilot for AdWords advertisers

Great search is all about turning intentions into actions in the blink of an eye. And in online retail, having a quick and user-friendly website can make a world of difference when it comes to engaging shoppers and driving sales.

Today we’re excited to announce we’re offering one of the most popular features of Google Commerce Search, Search As You Type, as a free, stand alone feature. It’s easy to implement and helps increase sales and conversion rates on merchant websites. The Search As You Type pilot is available to US-based AdWords advertisers for free, up to 25 million searches annually, after which licensing fees would apply.

Search As You Type uses Google’s predictive suggestions and instant product results to enhance a merchant’s existing website search functionality. When shoppers type a search query into a merchant’s site, Search As You Type shows them product suggestions and photos, making it faster and easier for people to spot the product they’re looking for and click through to make a purchase.



The Search As You Type pilot is one of the many steps we’re taking to provide technology, tools and traffic to help power the retail ecosystem. And we’ll continue to develop and invest in tools, such as Google Trusted Stores and Google Commerce Search, to help retailers connect with shoppers and drive conversions.

Over the coming months, we plan to expand the pilot to include more online retailers. If you're interesting in participating, please fill out this form. To learn more about Google Search As You Type, visit the site.

Posted by Jennifer Dulski, Product Management Director, Google Shopping

Helping businesses get started with Google Shopping: A new, easy way to create Product Listing Ads in Merchant Center

We announced that we’re creating a new shopping experience, Google Shopping, to empower merchants of all sizes to compete effectively. Through feedback from our merchant partners, we understand that the transition to the new Google Shopping experience may seem intimidating for first time AdWords advertisers. We take this feedback seriously and want you, our merchant partners, to know that we’re here to help.

As a first step, today we’re launching a new simplified setup flow for Product Listing Ads in the familiar Merchant Center interface. The new setup flow provides a step-by-step guide on how to create an AdWords account and set up a Product Listing Ad campaign, as well as how to control when and where your products appear in Google Shopping with bids. You can also view basic campaign reporting through your Merchant Center account.



Also, as previously announced, we’re offering two incentives to help merchants get started with Google Shopping:

1. All merchants who create Product Listing Ads by August 15, 2012 will automatically receive a monthly AdWords credit of 10% of their total spend on Product Listing Ads through the end of the year.
2. Additionally, active Product Search merchants (as of May 30, 2012) can fill out this form by August 15, 2012 and receive a $100 AdWords credit to use toward Product Listing Ads.

To create a Product Listing Ad campaign, sign into your Merchant Center account today. For more information please visit: www.google.com/ads/shopping.

Posted by Mayuresh Saoji, Product Manager, Google Shopping

Google Shopping and SMBs: What you need to know

We’re excited to launch a series of Hangouts on Air to help guide small and medium sized businesses through the transition to Google Shopping. This series of Hangouts will guide you through an introduction to Google Shopping--giving you all the information you need to list your products on Google Shopping:

Session 1: Google Shopping Introduction and Overview: Friday, July 13th - 9:30am PDT
Session 2: Introduction to Merchant Center: Tuesday, July 17th - 9:30am PDT
Session 3: Creating and Optimizing Your Product Listing Ads for Google Shopping: Friday July, 20th - 9:30am PDT
Session 4: Trusted Stores Overview and Setup: Monday, July 23rd - 10:30am PDT

To tune into this Hangout On Air:

1) Visit the Google Ads Google+ Page at 9:30am PDT / 12:30pm EDT.
2) Look for the stream post (see image below for what it will look like), and click to tune in. Be sure you’re signed into Google+!

We look forward to seeing you there, but if you cannot join us, we’ll be posting each session to this blog and the Google Business YouTube channel.

Posted by Jon Venverloh, Senior Manager, Google Shopping

Updates to Google Wallet for digital goods including attractive pricing and subscriptions support

Last week we had the pleasure of meeting many talented developers in the “Monetizing digital goods with Google Wallet” session and code lab at Google I/O. For those who weren’t able to attend, we have two updates to share about Google Wallet for digital goods (formerly called the In-App Payments API).

NEW PRICING
First, we’ve heard feedback from developers that 5% transaction fees are great for microtransactions but not as attractive for larger transactions with higher order value. To improve your experience selling higher priced items, we’re introducing 1.9% + $0.30 (or local equivalent) pricing in addition to the current 5%. Google will apply the option that charges you the lower of the two possible transaction fees for that order. Learn more and see examples of when each pricing option will apply in the Help Center.

SUBSCRIPTIONS
We also know that many orders happen on a recurring basis rather than just once. At Google I/O we demonstrated how to integrate with the new Google Wallet for digital goods subscriptions feature, which is now available in sandbox. Check out the video below.

If you’re already using Google Wallet for digital goods, just visit the sandbox to try subscriptions out for yourself and watch for an announcement in the coming weeks for when subscriptions will be ready for external use. If you’re not yet signed up, we encourage you to learn more and sign up for Google Wallet for digital goods on the developer site.


Posted by Pali Bhat, Product Manager, Google Wallet

Introducing the Save to Wallet APIs for Payment Cards and Offers

Google Wallet aspires to hold all the things you put in your physical wallet: credit and debit cards, coupons, loyalty cards, tickets, boarding passes, and more.  At Google I/O we demonstrated a developer-facing feature that helps us fulfill this vision: the Save to Wallet APIs.

The Save to Wallet APIs allow visitors to bank and merchant websites to save payment cards and offers to Google Wallet.

API for Payment Cards
The Save to Wallet API for Payment Cards enables banks to integrate any credit or signature debit card into Google Wallet in a relatively simple manner.  We’re providing issuing banks with two options: 1) a “no integration” option that allows banks to provide us card art, and co-market Google Wallet, or 2) a light integration option, which enables banks to push cards directly from their websites into Google Wallet, with user consent.  At Google I/O we demonstrated how Discover is working with Google on a concept that would enable Discover® cardmembers to save their cards to Google Wallet from the Account Center at discover.com.

We’re testing the Save to Wallet API for Payment Cards with a few other bank partners right now.  Banks interested in working with the API can request access here.

API for Offers

The Save to Wallet API for Offers enables merchants to publish offers that can be saved to Google Wallet from your desktop or mobile website.  These offers can then be redeemed by consumers using a mobile device either via SingleTap NFC at the point of sale, or by showing and scanning the offer during checkout.  Note that these offers are actually not created by Google, but are instead created by 3rd parties, e.g. merchants or developers.

The benefit of the API to the merchant is that your website visitors can easily save an offer from your site so that they have it with them when they visit your store.  Google Wallet will also remind your customers to use your offers before they expire, helping you get sales you may not otherwise.

If you’re a merchant or developer interested in the Save to Wallet API for Offers, you can learn more here.

There’s a lot more in store for Google Wallet, so stay tuned on our +Page.


Posted by Robin Dua, Head of Product Management, Consumer Payments and Wallet