In this weekâs INNELS Amazon Seller News, we look at a major change to Googleâs shopping search experience across Europe. Google has removed or significantly reduced its familiar organic product carousels in the European Economic Area (EEA), changing how online retailers can gain product visibility through organic search.
Product carousels that previously displayed products directly within Google search results have almost entirely disappeared from shopping-related searches across the EEA, according to Ecommerce News Europe and tracking from Dutch shopping analytics platform Productrise.
The EEA includes all EU member states, along with Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein. Productrise reported declines of between 90% and 100% in the product carousel results it tracks across Germany, France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Sweden, while markets outside the EEA, including the UK and US, remained unchanged.
The change follows Google's efforts to comply with the European Union's Digital Markets Act (DMA), which places restrictions on how designated gatekeepers can prioritize their own services in search results. The European Commission has previously found that Google gave preferential treatment to its own services, including shopping results, over third-party services.
Instead of the familiar product carousels and product grids, European users can now encounter lists featuring shops and comparison or aggregator websites.
Ecommerce News Europe reports that Google Shopping has also disappeared from the main search navigation in the affected markets. Google Shopping Ads, however, remain visible.
Google's own Search documentation confirms that the company has developed aggregator experiences for the EEA, including product-related experiences designed to surface comparison shopping services and other ecosystem participants.
This creates a different path between a shopper's search and a retailer's product page. Instead of seeing several products directly in the search results, users may first encounter a comparison or shopping service and then continue to another website.
For retailers that depended on organic product visibility within Google Search, the change could be significant.
Productrise founder Hugo Huijer told Ecommerce News Europe that the decline in tracked product carousel visibility reached 90% to 100% in just a few days. He described the change as a fundamental shift in organic visibility for online retailers because a search feature many businesses had built their strategies around had effectively disappeared.
This does not mean ecommerce SEO has become irrelevant. It means the type of visibility retailers receive from Google can change quickly when Google's search experience changes.
For sellers, that makes it increasingly important to avoid depending on a single organic placement or traffic source.
The change also affects the role retailers have traditionally given to Google Merchant Center.
Ecommerce News Europe reports that being listed in Merchant Center is now less valuable for organic product exposure because the corresponding products are no longer being displayed as prominently in the affected search results. SEO SĂźdwest's Kristian Kunz also noted that product-focused SEO has become less relevant specifically for visibility within Google Shopping's organic placements.
This distinction is important.
Merchant Center remains relevant to Google's broader shopping ecosystem, and paid Shopping Ads continue to appear. The change is specifically about the organic product exposure that retailers previously received through Google's search experience.
The shift may affect retailers differently depending on their size and marketing resources.
Ecommerce News Europe notes that larger retailers could potentially benefit from more direct traffic, while smaller retailers may find it harder to gain visibility through online marketing.
A smaller brand that previously appeared in an organic product carousel could now have fewer opportunities to reach a shopper without paying for advertising or being surfaced through another shopping or comparison service.
That makes brand visibility, marketplace presence and paid acquisition more important parts of the overall ecommerce strategy.
Google's change is part of a broader evolution in how ecommerce discovery works.
Consumers are no longer relying exclusively on traditional organic search results. Marketplaces such as Amazon, social commerce platforms such as TikTok Shop, comparison websites and increasingly AI-powered search experiences are all competing for the product discovery journey.
Google itself has been developing different search experiences for the EEA under the DMA, including aggregator units and structured experiences designed to connect users with comparison services and suppliers.
For brands, this means the goal should increasingly be visibility across multiple discovery environments rather than ranking for one specific Google feature.
For ecommerce brands, this is another reminder that organic visibility is never guaranteed. When a platform changes how products are displayed, the brands that depend on one traffic source can feel the impact immediately. The right approach is to build visibility across marketplaces, paid channels and other discovery platforms rather than relying on one search placement.ââ Andrejs Klimovskis, Co-Founder of INNELS
The practical takeaway is not to abandon Google. It is to stop treating any individual search feature as a permanent source of traffic.
For Amazon sellers and brands expanding across Europe, this makes marketplace diversification increasingly relevant. Amazon, TikTok Shop and other marketplaces can provide additional routes to customers when traditional search visibility becomes less predictable.
Amazon sellers should pay attention to this change even if their primary sales channel is Amazon.
Google remains an important discovery channel for brands, products and ecommerce websites. A change that reduces organic product visibility can affect how customers discover products outside marketplaces and can change the economics of traffic acquisition.
At the same time, Amazon itself continues to compete for product searches and shopping intent. Brands with strong Amazon listings, reviews and marketplace visibility may have another established destination for shoppers who are already looking to buy.
This is why a broader marketplace strategy can become increasingly important as search continues to evolve.
The disappearance of Google's organic product carousels does not mean retailers should stop investing in SEO.
Instead, SEO strategies may need to place greater emphasis on category pages, editorial content, brand searches and other organic opportunities. Ecommerce News Europe reports that Productrise expects category pages to become more important as the product carousel disappears.
Google's current documentation also shows that product-related structured search experiences continue to exist in the EEA, including carousel and aggregator formats, although the specific experience and eligibility can vary.
The key is to understand where organic visibility is actually being generated rather than optimizing for a feature that may no longer provide meaningful traffic.
European brands now have another reason to evaluate their traffic mix.
If a significant percentage of product discovery previously came from Google's organic shopping placements, brands should monitor changes in organic traffic, product impressions, branded searches and conversion rates following the rollout.
At the same time, brands should evaluate whether their products are visible across other important channels. For Amazon sellers, this could include Amazon SEO and advertising, TikTok Shop, creator-driven discovery and direct brand traffic.
The strongest strategy is increasingly less about choosing one channel and more about making sure the business can continue reaching customers when any individual platform changes its rules.
Google's removal of organic product carousels across the EEA represents a significant change for European ecommerce search. According to Productrise's tracking, the familiar product blocks have declined by 90% to 100% across several monitored European markets, while Google Shopping Ads remain available.
The immediate impact will differ between retailers, but the broader lesson is clear: ecommerce visibility is becoming more fragmented.
Brands should not assume that today's search placement will remain tomorrow. Building visibility across marketplaces, paid advertising, SEO, social commerce and direct channels can make the business less dependent on any single platform feature.
For Amazon sellers, this is another signal that marketplace strategy and search strategy need to work together rather than being treated as separate activities.
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