2017 is an important year, filled with opportunities for online retailers worldwide: Google Shopping is expanding its availability to 14 new countries.
Among the targeted states, there’s Portugal, where Google Shopping is available in beta as of November 2016.
Current Status of the Portuguese eCommerce Market
The Iberian country has around 10 million inhabitants, and while internet penetration is currently at the 70% mark, only 3.1 million people buy products online.
Portuguese online shoppers prefer spending their money online on toys, hobby and DIY items ($808 million). Fashion is a close second, accounting for $801 million.
Portugal is not a dominant eCommerce player in Europe, or even among the Southern Eastern countries, but the Iberian country has a lot of potential for remarkable future developments of the online retail market:
- Portugal has one of the best Internet infrastructures in the world;
- Internet penetration is expected to reach 85% in 2021;
- More than 60% of the population resides in urban areas;
- Portugal has excellent overall logistics, making it one of the easiest countries for product delivery in the world.
How to Get Started with Google Shopping in Portugal?
In order to get started with Google Shopping in Portugal, merchants need to prepare their feeds according to Google's requirements.
Required steps to get started with Google Shopping:
1. Create aGoogle Merchant Center account.
2. Create the data feed according to Google's requirements and upload it to Google Merchant Center. For the upload, merchants have three options: manual, FTP or URL upload.
3. Set up a Google Shopping campaign and adjust the bids according to the vertical benchmark and business objectives.
4. Schedule regular updates of the product feed to avoid advertising for products that are out of stock.
5. Analyze the performance of each individual product in your product feed and exclude the products that are burning the advertising budget.
If you have questions get in touch with us for a feed management consultation. We can help you get your feed ready and optimized in no time for Google Shopping in Portugal.