Merchandising and optimization

The Merchandising and optimization page in the Google Play Console simplifies how you manage and track out-of-app merchandising. This page is now the unified entry point to Play's monetization out-of-app merchandising surfaces into a single view. This new page streamlines your workflow and lets you control which products you'd like Play to surface outside of your app.

Key benefits

The Merchandising and optimization page provides the following key benefits:

• Unifies the management of out-of-app merchandising, allowing your SKUs to be promoted across various consumer-facing Google and Play surfaces such as Apps Home, Apps Details Page, Games Home, Games Details Page, promotional areas outside the app, and any new surfaces that get activated in the future. The surfaces are automatically selected by Google Play.
• Simplifies merchandising  management, including gathering of performance metrics.
• You can manage merchandising selections separately for each app, at the product level.
• Unified merchandising may increase post-purchase orders by showing products that users might be interested in after completing a purchase.
• Regular reminders to users when they abandon their carts may reduce the abandonment rate.
• Eligible users in selected countries or regions of the one-time products, will see recommendations powered by a recommendation engine as they shop on Google Play. For example, if they have bought a one-time product, they may see a recommendation prompting them to buy another product that others were interested in buying. Similarly, if they have abandoned their cart before buying a product, they may see a recommendation for a different popular item that they may like.

Get started

To view the new page, open your app in the Play Console and then click Monetize with Play > Merchandising and optimization. The following is a sample image of the new Merchandising and optimization page:

The Merchandised products section displays the merchandised products. The products are further categorized into high and default priority products based on the product priority which you can configure. The products are alphabetically ordered and include details such as SKU icon, product name, product ID, and product type.

What is changing?

With the introduction of the Merchandising and optimization page, previous entry points for merchandising programs are being deprecated. As a result, the standalone opt-in pages for Featured Products and Purchase Recommendations, along with opt-out form for the Cart Abandonment Reminders will be discontinued. This also means that you can no longer control the surfaces on which the merchandising options are shown. Google Play's recommendation engine will automatically determine the surfaces and the scenarios in which the purchase recommendations, featured products, and the cart abandonment reminders are shown to the user. This automation reduces your operational friction and simplifies your workflow.

Note: The merchandising programs for Featured Products, Purchase Recommendations, and Cart Abandonment Reminders have not been deprecated. Rather than functioning as separate, standalone initiatives, these programs have been integrated into a single, cohesive merchandising solution offered by Google Play.

Manage SKUs

The Merchandising and optimization page has two management journeys based on your participation in the existing (Cart Abandonment Reminders, Featured Products, or Purchase Recommendations) merchandising programs.

• Developers already active in any of the existing merchandising programs
• Developers who were never active in the existing merchandising programs

Note: You can merchandise only one-time products (OTP), not subscriptions. And the countries/regions in which a one-time product is merchandised depends on the region configuration of the one-time product.

Developers already active in any of the existing merchandising programs

If you were actively participating in Cart Abandonment Reminders, Featured Products, or Purchase Recommendations merchandising programs prior to March 16th 2025, then Play will honor your initial SKU selections based on following table:

 

Merchandising programs			State at launch day for developer review
Cart Abandonment Reminders	Featured Products	Purchase Recommendations
Opted in	Enrolled	Enrolled	All previously enrolled SKUs are ported over to the new Merchandised Products section automatically. The ported SKUs are active and editable in the new merchandising page.
Opted in	Enrolled	Not enrolled	All previously enrolled SKUs are ported over to the new Merchandised Products section automatically. The ported SKUs are active and editable in the new merchandising page.
Opted in	Not enrolled	Enrolled	All previously enrolled SKUs are ported over to the new Merchandised Products section automatically. The ported SKUs are active and editable in the new merchandising page.
Opted in	Not enrolled	Not enrolled	Top 100 active SKUs are suggested.
Opted out	Enrolled	Enrolled	Only SKUs enrolled in both Featured Products and Purchase Recommendations are ported over to the new Merchandised Products section automatically. The ported SKUs are active and editable in the new merchandising page.
Opted out	Enrolled	Not enrolled	Only SKUs enrolled in Featured Products are ported over to the new Merchandised Products section automatically. The ported SKUs are active and editable in the new merchandising page.
Opted out	Not enrolled	Enrolled	Only SKUs enrolled in both Featured Products and Purchase Recommendations are ported over to the new Merchandised Products section automatically. The ported SKUs are active and editable in the new merchandising page.
Opted out	Not enrolled	Not enrolled	Top 100 active SKUs are suggested.

 

After the launch of the Merchandising and optimization page, in the initial page, you will see the performance metrics and the list of merchandised products your app is currently enrolled for. You don't need to take any further action.

Developers who were never active in the existing merchandising programs

Note: This journey is applicable for both new developers or other developers who don't have prior selections in Cart Abandonment Reminders, Featured Products, or Purchase Recommendations merchandising programs.

If you had not prior been part of any of the merchandising surfaces you will have an option to select and manage your merchandising preferences in this page. Your initial page will show a suggestion of the top 100 SKUs sold within your app in the last 30 rolling days but you can also edit the list as you see fit.

• Active Acknowledgment (Opt-in) - You must actively acknowledge or save your SKU selection within the console to allow Play to merchandise those SKUs outside of your app. This step is essential for your SKUs to be included in out-of-app merchandising. If you take no action, your SKUs will not be available for out-of-app merchandising.
• SKU Limit - You can select a maximum of 1,000 SKUs (combining purchase options and offers) from your catalog to enroll in merchandising.
• Priority SKUs - You can flag up to 10 products as "high priority products" to signal which items Play should prioritize for merchandising. While Play can take this signal into account, however, Play makes the final serving decision based on ML models.

How to bulk edit SKU selections?

The Merchandising and optimization page lets you bulk edit the SKU selections for the merchandising program. This page is the central place to review and adjust which SKUs are enrolled for out-of-app merchandising.

To bulk edit the SKU selections, do the following:

1. Open your app in the Play Console.
2. Go to the Merchandising and optimization page (Monetize with Play > Merchandising and optimization)
3. In the Merchandised products section, click Edit all eligible products
4. Select the products that you want to opt-in and deselect to opt-out.
5. Click Save and then click Apply.

How to change the merchandising priority for a product?

You can set a product's merchandising priority from High priority to Default priority and the other way around. To set a product's merchandising priority from Default priority to High priority, do the following:

1. Open your app in the Play Console.
2. Go to the Merchandising and optimization page (Monetize with Play > Merchandising and optimization)
3. In the Merchandised products > Default priority section, identify the product for which you want to change the priority.
4. Click the three-dot menu for the product.
5. Select Make high priority.

Performance metrics

The Merchandising and optimization page displays the following performance metrics:

• Total impressions - The aggregate number of times your SKUs were shown across all surfaces for the selected time period.
• Orders - The number of transactions that were triggered by recommendations and completed successfully across all programs.
• Revenue - The sum of all revenue associated with the orders.

Best practices for merchandising

Here are some tips for creating effective merchandising strategies:

• Choose wisely - Select OTPs that are popular, relevant to your users, and likely to drive engagement. In-game currency packs and starter packs are often good choices.
• Compelling presentation
  • Use clear and concise titles and descriptions that highlight the value proposition of your OTPs.
  • Localize your text for different markets.
  • Set competitive prices.
  • Consider offering discounts or limited-time offers to incentivize purchases.
• Play Billing Library - Integrate a currently supported live version of the Play Billing Library.
• Fiat currency only - Currently, only fiat currency (for example, USD, EUR) is supported for merchandised products. Ensure your OTPs are based on fiat currency.

Merchandising examples

The following sample images show how the various merchandising initiatives are displayed to the users on various surfaces.

Example: Recommending relevant products 

Example: Recommending new purchases

Example: Reminders for cart abandonment