Pricebeeper vs Google Merchant Center price benchmarks

Who Pricebeeper suits better than Google Merchant Center price benchmarks

1. 1

   Merchants who need to know which seller undercut them

   The benchmark is one average price per product and country, with no seller names. Pricebeeper lists the sellers it finds for each product, with price, shipping, total price and stock, and alerts you when one of them drops its price or starts a sale.

2. 2

   Shops selling on Amazon as well as Google

   Google builds the benchmark from Shopping ads and organic listings on Google. Pricebeeper searches Amazon too on every paid plan, from $39 a month for 500 products, and follows the sellers of each matched ASIN.

3. 3

   Retailers whose prices differ by state or province

   The Merchant API's price competitiveness report returns a country code with each benchmark. Pricebeeper tracks 67 countries and about 1,700 states, provinces and similar regions, each as its own region on your plan.

4. 4

   Teams that want history and alerts without a data project

   Merchant Center shows only the latest prices, and Google points to the Merchant API or BigQuery for building a history. Pricebeeper records prices from your first check, charts them per seller, exports them as CSV and sends alerts by email, Slack or webhook.

5. 5

   Shops with products that lack a valid GTIN

   Google gives no benchmark without a valid GTIN. Pricebeeper matches by GTIN first but falls back to brand and title, and you can pin competitor pages for products that no search matches.

Pricebeeper and Google Merchant Center price benchmarks side by side

What the free benchmark gives you

Price benchmarks sit in the Pricing tab under Analytics in Google Merchant Center and cost nothing. For each product you sell with a valid GTIN, Google shows your current price, a benchmark price, the gap between them as a percentage, and the product's clicks over the last 28 days. Cards summarize how many products are cheaper, similar or more expensive than the benchmark, how prices spread across your brands, and which products have the largest gaps.

Google describes the benchmark as the average price that typically leads to more successful ad auctions, impressions, clicks or conversions, calculated from all retailers selling the same GTIN in Shopping ads and organic listings. You can filter by brand, category, country, product ID, price gap or title. The Merchant API's price competitiveness report returns the same data: product ID, title, brand, your price, a country code and the benchmark price.

The same tab offers sale price suggestions, predicted from your ad performance and price sensitivity over the past 7 days. They need purchase conversions reported, and Google shows them only where it predicts a clear gain. Shopify merchants can reach all this through Google's own Google & YouTube app, which syncs products to Merchant Center, is free to install and has 5,499 reviews with a 4.5 rating on the Shopify App Store.

What the benchmark leaves out

• No seller names. The benchmark is one number per product and country. Merchant Center's separate Competitors tab names merchants, but by visibility, not price.
• Only GTIN products you sell. Products without a valid GTIN, or products you don't list on Google, get no benchmark.
• Country level. Reports break down by country; Google's pages describe no state or city view.
• Latest prices only. Google notes that only the latest prices are available at a given time, and suggests the Merchant API or BigQuery for building a price history.
• No alerts. The help pages describe reports and suggestions, with no notice when a price moves.
• Google only. Amazon, and sellers that don't list on Google, aren't in the benchmark.
• Internal use. Google's terms say the pricing data can't be resold, shown publicly or aggregated across businesses.

How Pricebeeper picks up from there

Pricebeeper answers the questions the benchmark leaves open: who is cheaper, by how much with shipping, since when, and in which state. For each monitored product, paid plans search Google Shopping and Amazon, match by barcode and then brand and title, and keep one row per seller with price, shipping, total price, stock and condition. Competitor price monitoring walks through it.

Both tools key on the GTIN, so the product data you already send Google is a good start. Pricebeeper imports a Google Merchant Center feed directly, keeping GTIN, brand, MPN and the cost of goods sold field; see catalog import. Products without a GTIN still match by brand and title.

When a seller changes its price, price alerts compare it with that seller's own previous price and report a drop, a rise, a sale or a target price reached. Stock alerts report sell-outs and restocks. Alerts go by batched email, in the app, to Slack or to a signed webhook.

The cost of stepping up

Merchant Center is free at any size. Pricebeeper's Free plan is free too but doesn't search Google Shopping or Amazon: it reads your own product pages and up to 3 competitor pages you pin per product. The plans that add Google Shopping and Amazon search start with Starter.

Only the products you monitor count, so you can import your whole feed and monitor the products where price decides the sale. Growth has a 14-day trial without a card that drops to Free when it ends. The pricing page lists every plan.

States, provinces and channels

The benchmark is per country. Pricebeeper tracks 67 countries and about 1,700 states and provinces, because Google Shopping results differ by location, which matters to retailers with stores or delivery zones in several states; regional price tracking explains how regions use slots. On channels, Pricebeeper adds Amazon and pinned competitor pages to Google Shopping, plus eBay lookups by GTIN and bol.com and Kaufland through your own seller accounts; see marketplaces and channels.

Where Google stays ahead

Google has data Pricebeeper can't see: your clicks, conversions and price sensitivity, which drive its sale price suggestions and automated discounts. Its benchmark draws on every retailer selling the GTIN on Google rather than the sellers a search returns, and its Competitors tab shows which merchants appear above you and how often, which Pricebeeper covers only for ads, from Starter up. And it costs nothing.

Using both together

The two fit together. Keep Merchant Center for the benchmark and sale price suggestions, and use Pricebeeper for seller names, Amazon, states, history and alerts. If you export the benchmark through the Merchant API, Pricebeeper's CSV exports and API let you line the two up by GTIN. Create an account and import your Merchant Center feed to start.

When Google Merchant Center price benchmarks may suit you better

• You only need to know if your prices sit above or below the market

  The Pricing tab shows, free of charge, how many of your products are cheaper, similar or more expensive than the benchmark, how that splits across your brands, and which products have the largest gaps. If that answers your question, you don't need a paid tool.

• You want price suggestions from your own performance data

  Google's sale price suggestions use your ad performance and price sensitivity over the past 7 days, with predicted click and conversion uplift, and automated discounts can apply them. Pricebeeper doesn't see your clicks or conversions and makes no such predictions.

• You want Google's full view of a product's sellers

  Google calculates the benchmark from all retailers selling the same GTIN in Shopping ads and organic listings. Pricebeeper sees the sellers that Google Shopping and Amazon return to its searches, which may not be every retailer Google counts.

• You care about visibility as much as price

  Merchant Center's Competitors tab names merchants with visibility similar to yours and those with the highest visibility in a category, with page overlap and position, at no cost. Pricebeeper's share of voice covers ads on your monitored products only, from Starter up.

Questions people ask