Google adds AI tools to help merchants boost sales

Google unveiled significant artificial intelligence enhancements for Merchant Center on May 21, 2025. The technology company introduced automated insights, personalized recommendations, and advanced AI-powered features designed to analyze product performance data and surface growth opportunities for retailers.

According to Google, Merchant Center employs AI to examine unique products and performance metrics across merchant accounts. The system proactively identifies potential marketing opportunities based on historical data analysis and predictive modeling.

"Merchant Center might identify an upcoming holiday - like Father's Day - as an ideal promotion opportunity," states the official announcement. "Our AI-powered insights could then suggest the best products to promote, recommend strategic discounts to optimize sales, and even show a forecasted impact."

The automated system pre-fills promotional content and optimizes product feeds without requiring manual intervention. Merchants retain control over all changes through review and approval mechanisms.

Google integrated three core AI-powered capabilities into the platform's infrastructure. The seasonal shopping preparation feature delivers automated insights about key marketing moments and trending product identification. The system generates ready-to-launch discount recommendations aligned with seasonal sales patterns.

The implementation assistance feature provides actionable insights and recommendations while maintaining merchant oversight of all modifications. Product discovery receives enhancement through improved search functionality, filtering capabilities, and automatic image and video generation tools.

These developments build upon Google's existing Product Studio technology, which launched in November 2023 for Merchant Center Next users. Product Studio utilizes AI-powered scene generation, background editing, and resolution enhancement capabilities. According to internal company data, 80% of surveyed users report increased efficiency through Product Studio utilization.

The AI-powered features demonstrate specific technical capabilities across multiple merchant operations. Scene generation creates product imagery in natural settings through text-to-image generative models. Background editing removes distracting elements while preserving product focus. Resolution enhancement improves image quality for professional presentation standards.

Google's documentation indicates merchants can generate promotional content for specific seasonal events through template-based recommendations. The system analyzes historical performance data to predict optimal discount percentages and product selection for maximum sales impact.

For example, merchants preparing for Father's Day campaigns receive automated suggestions identifying high-performing products from previous years' data. The AI analyzes seasonal trends, competitor pricing, and inventory levels to generate targeted promotional strategies.

The platform incorporates advanced filtering mechanisms using natural language processing. Merchants can search product catalogs using plain English queries such as "products that cost me clicks but are out of stock" or "visible products without clicks."

Marketing professionals gain access to category-level insights showing performance metrics, demand trends, and optimization recommendations. The system tracks individual product performance across multiple Google advertising channels while providing comparative analysis against industry benchmarks.

Google reports significant performance improvements among early adopters of the enhanced Merchant Center platform. Merchants utilizing gross profit optimization in smart bidding campaigns achieved an average 15% increase in campaign profitability compared to revenue-only optimization strategies.

The company's internal research indicates 72% of retail marketers consider consumer insights helpful for holiday marketing strategy development. Google's AI-powered tools address this demand through automated insight generation and real-time performance monitoring.

Wuitusu, a merchant case study highlighted in Google's documentation, achieved 95% year-over-year click-through rate improvements and 75% cost-per-click reductions using Product Studio's scene-generated imagery. Domma, another featured merchant, reported 79% site traffic increases and 135% conversion value growth through budget optimization in Performance Max campaigns.

The AI capabilities extend beyond basic automation to include predictive analytics and forecasting. Merchants receive estimated impact calculations for promotional activities before implementation. The system evaluates multiple variables including seasonal trends, competitor analysis, and historical performance metrics.

Technical implementation requires merchant acceptance of additional terms of service for AI-powered features. The platform maintains review processes for generated content to ensure quality standards and brand alignment. Google employs quality reviewers who assess AI-generated images and videos for accuracy and appropriateness.

Product Studio supports multiple languages including Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish. Video generation remains limited to United States merchants, though Google indicates expansion plans for additional countries.

The AI-powered insights complement existing Merchant Center analytics including the Store Quality scorecard, which compares merchant performance against category benchmarks across delivery, shipping costs, returns, and seller ratings. Merchants receive suggested pricing recommendations with estimated impact calculations for impressions, clicks, conversions, and gross profit changes.

Industry professionals have responded positively to the AI integration. Marketing teams report reduced technical barriers for product performance analysis and improved efficiency in optimization cycles. The natural language search functionality eliminates complex filtering syntax requirements while maintaining comprehensive product data access.

The enhanced platform addresses common merchant challenges including product discovery, inventory management, and promotional timing. AI-powered recommendations help identify underperforming products requiring optimization attention while suggesting specific improvement strategies.

Google's approach emphasizes merchant control over automated suggestions. All AI-generated recommendations require manual review and approval before implementation. Merchants can adjust, modify, or reject suggestions while maintaining complete oversight of their product feeds and promotional activities.

The company positions these enhancements as part of broader AI integration across its advertising ecosystem. The tools work in conjunction with Performance Max campaigns, Search campaigns, and other Google advertising products to provide comprehensive marketing automation.

Why this matters

The introduction of AI-powered insights in Google Merchant Center represents a fundamental shift in how e-commerce marketers approach product optimization and promotional strategy. Marketing teams can now access sophisticated predictive analytics previously available only to large enterprises with dedicated data science resources.

The automated insight generation reduces the technical expertise required for effective product performance analysis. Marketing professionals can focus on strategic decision-making rather than manual data interpretation and analysis. This democratization of advanced analytics capabilities levels the competitive playing field for smaller merchants competing against larger retailers.

The integration between Merchant Center and Google's advertising ecosystem creates opportunities for more sophisticated campaign optimization. Marketers can leverage AI-generated insights to inform bidding strategies, audience targeting, and creative development across multiple advertising channels simultaneously.

The predictive forecasting capabilities enable proactive rather than reactive marketing approaches. Teams can identify seasonal opportunities, optimize inventory allocation, and prepare promotional campaigns based on data-driven predictions rather than historical assumptions.

Timeline

May 21, 2025: Google announces AI-powered growth insights and recommendations for Merchant Center

April 28, 2025: Google launches AI-powered search filters for Merchant Center, enabling natural language queries for product data filtering

April 8, 2025: Google Merchant Center unveils key product data specification changes for 2025, affecting installment pricing and energy efficiency classifications

December 23, 2024: Google launches glossary for Merchant Center Next platform, standardizing e-commerce terminology

August 27, 2024: Google releases comprehensive holiday optimization tips featuring AI-powered tools and Performance Max enhancements

July 30, 2024: Google integrates Merchant Center Feeds with AI Image Editor, streamlining ad creation processes

July 27, 2024: Google announces mandatory upgrade to New Merchant Center for all retailers by September 2024

July 4, 2024: Google Merchant Center unveils advanced data management tools for automated error fixes and richer product details

June 30, 2024: Google Merchant Center Next expands Product Studio to UK, India, and Japan with new scene themes and direct uploads

February 19, 2024: Google requires transparency for AI-Generated images in Merchant Center through metadata tagging requirements

November 1, 2023: Google rolls out AI tools to help merchants create and manage product imagery with Product Studio launch