Automatic product listings from Google My Business offer SMEs new opportunities to easily promote items in their local stores.
For the past three years, it has been possible to add products to Google My Business—a useful feature that allows you to display items sold in your physical store for free on Google Maps and the Google Search Network under your business name.
However, I’ve noticed that this feature is underutilized. With hundreds or even thousands of products in a store, manually adding them all can be overwhelming. That seems to be changing now.
According to this article from Google’s Help Center, the tech giant has partnered with Pointy to simplify the process of adding local products from physical stores. Currently, this feature is only available in English-speaking countries, but I expect it will soon be accessible to Dutch retailers as well. Lightspeed POS is one of the supported POS systems.
How Automatic Product Listings Work
When customers search for a business profile, they may see a product carousel (in the Maps mobile app) or both a carousel and a “Products” tab when using Google Search. Customers can then:
- View a map with recommended products.
- Browse products within a specific category.
- Contact the business directly.
Why Is This Important?
With Pointy (or a similar tool in the future), you simply scan the barcode of the physical product—that’s it. The product information is then automatically retrieved and added to your Google My Business profile.
This will increase the local, organic visibility of your business without requiring additional investment in local advertisements.
Customers can view these items and prices before stepping into your store. Just like promotional flyers, such product listings drive store visits and boost sales for both new and returning customers.
What Are Product Listings Again?
Within Google’s ecosystem, Product Listings have been popular for years, especially in Shopping. Featuring images, descriptions, and prices, these ads are much more engaging than traditional text ads.
In my view, this is a strong signal from Google that they are aiming to support SMEs by making it easier to add products. And frankly, it’s about time. A significant portion of the audience wants to continue shopping locally, and this feature aligns perfectly with that demand.
