The State of eCommerce in Ireland and How to Prepare for Google Shopping: Video

Welcome to the fifth week of iProspect TV! In this week’s episode of iProspect TV, Kevin McAuley from our paid search team speaks to Mark Lenehen, Performance Director and eCommerce expert here at iProspect Ireland.

In this video, Mark talks about the state of eCommerce in Ireland compared to the UK and explains how Irish eCommerce retailers should start preparing for Google Shopping. So, sit back and enjoy the video and as ever, don’t forget to leave us a comment at the bottom of the page.

To find out more information about Google Shopping, read our blog about it here.

Video Transcription

Kevin: Hi guys. Welcome to the latest episode of iProspect TV. Today I've got with me battling through with a cold, Mark Lenehen performance director here and he has got heaps of experience in eCommerce. So, I'm going to grill him a little bit about the state of eCommerce in Ireland, as he recently moved over from the UK where they are a bit more advanced. So Mark how does eCommerce in Ireland compare to the UK?

Mark: Well e-commerce in Ireland lags behind the UK somewhat. If you look at what's going on in the UK at the moment. They're a very well developed e-commerce market. Obviously, the population, sixty million versus four/five million in Ireland. But saying that, there's lots going on there in terms of comparison sites. You've got Shopzilla, Pricerunner, Kelco and there's many others including Google Shopping, which is huge in the UK, the ultimate comparison site for want of a better word. So there's a lot going on in the UK which we're not doing in Ireland as yet. The other thing too is the UK e-commerce market is forecast to grow to 15.6% of total sales in the next 5 years. Whereas in Ireland, 3.6%. So we are way behind. We have a lot of catching up to do.

Kevin: You mentioned Google Shopping there. Would you be able to tell us more about what Google Shopping is and if that's available in Ireland or any of the signs coming from Google.

Mark: Yeah sure absolutely, as I suggested Google Shopping is a comparison site and it gives the user the ability to view different products from different merchants based on price, based on delivery and based on the criteria on whatever they're looking for. To use Google Shopping you need obviously an Adwords account.

Kevin: So it's a paid service?

Mark: It's a paid thing but up until February this year funnily enough it was actually free in the UK and then Google decided to tie it into Adwords to make it paid search. So what you need is your Adwords account, you need a Google Merchant Centre account, you need to link them both together, you need to create a data feed of your products, upload it to the Merchant Center and then create product listing campaign within Adwords. And then, you're ready to go with Google Shopping. But it is extremely lucrative for retailers in terms of if you're competitive, if you're delivery structure is fast, is well priced and then you can rank very highly in it and your conversion < rates are extremely competitive.

Kevin: So you notice a good return of investment in that?

Mark: Absolutely, a huge return in investment from Google Shopping. It's not here in Ireland though yet neither are product listing ads. On the grapevine, I've heard possibly quarter of next year.

Kevin: Suppose then if you're an eCommerce retailer in Ireland and you want to start getting ready for Google Shopping when it comes to Ireland. What can you do to prepare for that and what else can you be doing in the mean time I guess to boost your eCommerce?

Mark: So to prepare for Google Shopping you first need your Google Adwords account. You have to have a robust Google Adwords account and we can help with that. You obviously have to have a Google Merchant Centre account, again that's something that we can help with and you need to create product listing ads. Again, that's something iProspect can do. We also are bringing in a structured data feed manager system which means that we can look after the data feeds for any of our eCommerce clients. We can optimise them, we can upload them to Google Shopping in addition to other other comparison sites if and when they land in Ireland. So we can look after the whole package for our clients.

Kevin: So great video there from Mark, some great insights on eCommerce. We'd love to hear your comments and feedback. So if you're an eCommerce retailer, we'd love to hear what you're doing and any extra tips that you have, please leave us a comment in the video. Until next time thanks for watching and take care.

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