- Brodie Clark says Microsoft Merchant Center product feeds are no longer just a secondary channel for Bing Shopping traffic. They may become part of the structured product data that AI systems use to ground ecommerce answers.
- Microsoft Shopping still has lower competition than Google, often cheaper clicks, and an older, higher-income audience across Bing, Yahoo and DuckDuckGo.
Ecommerce SEO Tip: everyone is aware of Google Merchant Center, but what about Microsoft Merchant Center?
I’ve increasingly been spending time within the Microsoft Ads accounts for my clients lately, which allows you to access their Merchant Center for product feed management.… pic.twitter.com/ZJ5ds9JK4d
— Brodie Clark (@brodieseo) July 5, 2026
Most ecommerce teams have a Google Merchant Center setup. Far fewer give Microsoft Merchant Center the same attention.
On 5 July 2026, independent SEO consultant Brodie Clark argued that this gap is becoming harder to ignore. Clark, the founder of SerpLens and author of the SerpAlert newsletter, said he has been spending more time inside Microsoft Ads accounts for clients because Microsoft’s product feed data may matter beyond Bing Shopping.
His point was not that Bing suddenly rivals Google in ecommerce search volume. It was that Bing’s indexed and structured product data can feed into Microsoft’s wider AI ecosystem.
“I’m convinced that there is growing importance to ensure eCommerce sites have their product feeds managed correctly in Bing,” Clark wrote.
That shifts the discussion. Microsoft Merchant Center is usually treated as a lower-priority version of Google Merchant Center: useful for cheaper clicks, worth testing, but rarely central to ecommerce SEO. Clark is arguing that the feed may also influence whether products are visible to AI systems that rely on Bing’s data.
For stores that only maintain a Google feed, that could become a real blind spot.
Bing Has Free Product Listings, Too
Clark specifically pointed to Microsoft’s free product listings. Microsoft labels the feature “product listings,” but the basic idea is similar to Google’s free listings: products can appear inside Bing Shopping without ad spend.
To be eligible, merchants need a Microsoft Merchant Center store and a product feed with titles, descriptions, prices, images, availability and other product attributes. If that feed is missing or outdated, the products are less likely to show up properly.
Bing Shopping reaches a smaller audience than Google, but it still gives merchants access to meaningful search demand across Bing and partner networks. The channel also tends to have fewer sellers competing for placements, which can make it attractive for smaller ecommerce brands dealing with rising Google CPCs.
The setup is not especially complicated for stores that already use Google Merchant Center. Microsoft accepts common Google Shopping feed formats, so much of the existing product data can usually be reused instead of rebuilt from scratch.
The AI Search Angle Is the Bigger Point
The standard argument for Microsoft Shopping is simple: cheaper clicks, lighter competition and incremental reach. Clark’s argument goes further.
If a shopper asks an AI assistant where to buy a product, which option fits a specific need, or whether an item is in stock, the answer depends on what the system can retrieve, understand and trust. For Microsoft Copilot and Bing-connected experiences, clean product data inside Microsoft’s ecosystem may become part of that discovery layer.
Microsoft has already described Copilot Search in Bing as a system that generates summarized answers and cites web sources directly. That means Bing visibility is no longer limited to classic search results or Shopping tab placements.
Microsoft also made AI search visibility more measurable in February 2026 when it introduced the AI Performance report in Bing Webmaster Tools. The report shows citation counts, grounding queries and URLs referenced by Copilot.
For ecommerce teams, this matters because product pages and feeds are now part of a broader visibility stack. A product feed is not just campaign input. It is structured data that can help search and AI systems understand what a store sells, what is available and which page should be surfaced.
The Bing Audience Is Smaller, but Not Weak
Google’s scale still dominates the comparison. That is why many ecommerce teams stop paying attention after looking at search volume.
But the audience profile is different. Bing has a strong presence on Windows devices, Edge, workplace computers and default browser setups that many users never change. That gives Microsoft access to an older and often more affluent audience than many marketers assume.
For premium products, B2B tools, professional services, home-office equipment and higher-consideration purchases, that profile can matter more than raw impression volume. A smaller channel with better-fit users can still produce profitable incremental traffic, especially when competition is lower.
That is why Microsoft Shopping should not be dismissed as “just Bing.” It reaches buyers in contexts where Google is not always the only discovery path.
Feed Quality Is the Core Issue
Whether the goal is Bing visibility, lower CPCs, free product listings or future AI citations, the same variable keeps coming back: feed quality.
Product titles, descriptions, categories, images, prices and availability fields determine how well Microsoft can understand and match products. A weak feed does not only hurt paid campaigns. It can also reduce eligibility for free listings and make products harder for AI systems to interpret.
That matters because AI search does not reward messy data. If prices are outdated, titles are vague, variants are unclear or availability is missing, the product becomes harder to trust and harder to surface.
Clean Microsoft product data does not guarantee that a store will appear in Copilot answers. But if the store is absent from Microsoft Merchant Center entirely, or if the feed is broken, the chance becomes much lower.
Microsoft’s UCP Push Shows Where This Is Heading
Clark also mentioned a UCP tab appearing inside one of his clients’ Microsoft Ads accounts.
UCP stands for Universal Commerce Protocol. Microsoft Advertising made UCP-ready feeds generally available in the US through Microsoft Merchant Center in April 2026, naming Target as an early partner and expanding Copilot Checkout to more merchants.
Microsoft describes UCP as infrastructure that allows AI agents to discover products, evaluate price and availability, and support checkout-ready commerce experiences. In plain terms, Microsoft wants merchant feeds to become useful beyond traditional ads.
That does not mean every ecommerce team needs to overhaul its strategy immediately. UCP is still early. But it does support Clark’s broader point: Microsoft is treating product feed data as an input layer for AI-powered commerce, not just as fuel for Shopping ads.
What Ecommerce Teams Should Do Now
For most ecommerce teams, the practical first step is simple: set up Microsoft Merchant Center if it is not already in place.
Microsoft can import feed data and campaign settings from Google Merchant Center and Google Ads, which lowers the setup barrier for stores already running Google Shopping.
From there, teams should make sure product titles, descriptions, images, pricing, stock status and attributes are accurate. Free product listings should be enabled, feed errors should be fixed, and Microsoft Shopping performance should be measured separately from Google instead of treated as an afterthought.
The budget argument is still valid. Many advertisers will start with Google as the primary channel and test Microsoft with a smaller share. But Clark’s bigger point is about visibility infrastructure.
If product discovery keeps moving into AI answers, shopping assistants and agentic commerce interfaces, then maintaining only a Google feed starts to look incomplete. Microsoft Merchant Center may not drive the same volume today, but ignoring it means leaving a growing discovery surface unmanaged.
For ecommerce SEO teams, that is the real takeaway: Bing product feeds are no longer just a paid shopping detail. They are becoming part of how products are structured, understood and potentially surfaced across Microsoft’s AI search ecosystem.
