Over the last 2 years, we've been singing our praises for Google Trusted Stores. Trusted Stores offered free purchase protection to consumers shopping the websites of qualified merchants. The service collected customer reviews and fulfillment performance which rewarded high performing merchants with increased conversion rates thanks to increased credibility and buyer confidence.
Then:
Now:
Google Customer Reviews Badge
Google Customer Reviews Survey
Google Trusted Stores is now Google Customers Reviews
Google has discontinued their (free) purchase protection and the program has been re-branded as Google Customer Reviews. Here's a breakdown of the differences between the two programs:
<table class="tg">
<tbody><tr>
<th class="tg-9hbo">Feature</th>
<th class="tg-9hbo">Google Customer Reviews</th>
<th class="tg-9hbo">Google Trusted Stores</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tg-yw4l">Customer purchase protection</td>
<td class="tg-yw4l">No</td>
<td class="tg-yw4l">Yes</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tg-yw4l">Seller ratings on Google</td>
<td class="tg-yw4l">Yes</td>
<td class="tg-yw4l">Yes</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tg-yw4l">Customer reviews on your site</td>
<td class="tg-yw4l">Yes</td>
<td class="tg-yw4l">Yes</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tg-yw4l">Program badge on your site</td>
<td class="tg-yw4l">Yes</td>
<td class="tg-yw4l">Yes</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tg-yw4l">Review extensions</td>
<td class="tg-yw4l">No</td>
<td class="tg-yw4l">Yes</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
Benefits of Google Customer Reviews
- Google Customer Reviews data is accepted by seller ratings, helping you gain seller ratings on Search ads and Google Shopping.
- Google Customer Reviews badge helps you let your users know what other customers have said about their experiences on your site.
Eligibility
To use Google Customer Reviews, your checkout flow must include a separate order confirmation page and meet the following technical requirements:
- Your platform must allow you to add JavaScript code to all of your site’s web pages Your shopping cart pages must be hosted on your own site URL (not hosted on a third party domain, e.g. Shopify or CoreCommerce)
- Your site’s order confirmation page must be encrypted (i.e. only accessed using HTTPS)
How to opt-in to Google Customer Reviews
Follow these steps:
- Log in to your Merchant Center account.
- Click the 3-dot icon dropdown in the upper right corner.
- Select Merchant Center programs from the dropdown menu options
- From the Merchant Center programs page, navigate to the Google Customer Reviews card.
- Click Get started to sign up.
If you were already in the Google Trusted Stores program, your reviews will be automatically migrated into the new Google Customer Reviews program.
Resources
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