Google product carousels disappear from search in the EEA: What online retailers need to know

Online sellers in Europe have lost one of their most visible spots in Google search, as reported by Hugo Huijer, Founder of Productrise on the company’s blog. Google product carousels, the organic “popular products” blocks shown for shopping-related queries, have almost completely disappeared from search results across the European Economic Area (EEA). The change follows a redesign of European search results that Google announced on 8 September to comply with the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA).

The EEA covers all EU member states plus Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein. The United Kingdom is not part of it, and that is exactly where the line runs in the data.

At a glance

• What happened: Google product carousels have largely vanished from search results in EEA countries.
• Scale: Productrise data shows drops of roughly 90 to 100 percent in Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Sweden.
• When: Google announced the redesign on 8 September, and the drop showed up around 15 to 16 September.
• Where it didn’t happen: The UK, the US, Australia and other non-EEA countries are unaffected.
• Why: The EU’s Digital Markets Act. In July, the European Commission fined Google for giving its own services more prominence than comparable third-party services.
• What replaced them: A “Comparison Sites” unit listing third-party comparison shopping services. Google appears in it as one of the options.

Google product carousels drop by 90 to 100 percent

The numbers come from Productrise, a Dutch organic shopping analytics platform that monitors product carousels across thousands of search queries every day. In the EEA countries where it has enough data to draw firm conclusions (Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Sweden), product carousels dropped by roughly 90 to 100 percent within a few days, collapsing around 15 to 16 September.

Outside the EEA, nothing moved. In the UK, the US and Australia, product carousels still appear as usual.

According to Productrise founder Hugo Huijer, around 85 percent of the commercial-intent queries the company tracks used to trigger at least one organic product carousel. In the affected countries, that share has fallen to almost zero, practically overnight, about eight days after Google’s announcement.

What replaced Google product carousels?

Instead of the familiar carousel, searchers in the EEA now see a unit that Google labels “Comparison Sites”. It lists several comparison shopping services in separate expandable rows, with one of them open by default.

Two details stand out:

• The listings don’t come from Google’s Shopping Graph. Clicking a product in a third-party row takes the user straight to that comparison site’s own product page. Google hands the click to an aggregator instead of showing the underlying sellers itself.
• Google lists itself as one of the comparison sites. Expanding Google’s own row brings back something that looks a lot like the old carousel, and clicking a product opens a knowledge panel with multiple sellers. However, the cards no longer name a store. They show a price with a “& more prices” label, so the seller information now sits a click or two deeper.

Why Google removed product carousels: the Digital Markets Act

The DMA designates large platforms as “gatekeepers” and bans them from favouring their own services. As reported by Search Engine Journal, the European Commission fined Google 460 million euros on 23 July for giving its own shopping, hotel, transport and sports results more prominence than comparable third-party services, as part of a wider 890 million euro package. Google was given 60 days to comply or face further periodic penalties.

On 8 September, Google rolled out redesigned search results in the EEA and openly said the new layout is worse. Google told Reuters the changes mark the largest reduction  in quality of service at the world’s most popular internet search engine in its 29-year search history.

As noted by Hugo Huijer, on the same day, Google added documentation on “regional differences in Search experience” to Search Central. It describes the building blocks now used in the EEA, including:

• an aggregator unit, which gives visibility to comparison shopping services, online travel agencies, metasearch engines and directories (the “Comparison Sites” block), and
• a supplier unit, which gives brands and retailers a direct placement, but only appears alongside the aggregator unit.

What losing Google product carousels means for online retailers

For ecommerce brands selling in the EEA, the impact on organic visibility is significant. Huijer calls it a fundamental shift in how organic visibility works: “A feature many built strategies around is gone for now.”

Google product carousels and Google’s Shopping Graph have played a large part in the customer journey, especially for comparing sellers, products, prices and reviews. The change adds to existing pressure as organic visibility has already been squeezed by the rise of AI Overviews. Recent research in Germany showed that top online shops there lost about 17% of their organic visibility year-on-year.

How retailers can respond without Google product carousels

Productrise expects category pages to become more important again in organic search.

According to information from their website, Google also documents a newer option for the EEA (as well as Türkiye and South Africa): structured data carousels, currently in beta. A site can earn its own horizontal “host carousel” for product queries by adding ItemList structured data combined with Product markup to a category or summary page that links to individual product pages on the same domain. This carousel is earned through structured data on your own website, not through a Merchant Center product feed. The two are separate systems.

Hugo Huijer’s practical advice for sellers is not to panic, but to pay attention:

1. Monitor your EEA organic clicks in Merchant Center.
2. Keep product data and structured data clean.
3. Check whether your category pages are set up to earn one of the new structured data carousels.

Is this the final version?

Probably not. The Commission said it will monitor how Google implements the changes, and the 60-day window set on 23 July runs into late September. Google has a long track record of continuously adjusting its search results, and Huijer’s best guess is that the current layout is a starting point rather than an endpoint. Product visibility in the EEA may change again in the coming weeks or months.

For now, Google product carousels are gone from most EEA search results, while in the UK, the US and other non-EEA markets it is business as usual.

FAQ

Q: Why did Google product carousels disappear in Europe?

A: Google redesigned its search results in the EEA to comply with the EU’s Digital Markets Act, which bans gatekeepers from favouring their own services. In July, the European Commission fined Google 460 million euros for giving its own shopping, hotel, transport and sports results more prominence than comparable third-party services.

Q: Which countries are affected?

A: The change affects the European Economic Area: all EU member states plus Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein. Productrise has enough data to confirm the drop in Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Sweden.

Q: When did the change happen?

A: Google announced the redesign on 8 September. According to Productrise, product carousels collapsed around 15 to 16 September.

Q: Is this change permanent?

A: It’s unclear. The European Commission said it will monitor how Google implements the changes, and the compliance window runs into late September.

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