Will Google Make Shopping Season Easier?

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Google is looking for a new middle ground between browsing and purchasing. This is about Google trying to figure out methods to defend search by making search more relevant to the purchasing process

In an effort to capitalise on the anticipated online shopping season traffic, tech giant Google recently unveiled nine new shopping tools.

Google revealed several new capabilities at an event called “Search On” that are intended to enhance visual shopping on Google, enable users to conduct more thorough product research, and utilise the search engine as a source of fashion inspiration.

One of the new tools is a shop in 3D visual feature, which will let customers view 3D images of shoes before making a purchase and is being tested with companies like Vans and Sketchers. A buying guide is another new feature that will aid customers in making more complex decisions when purchasing more expensive goods. All sizes of retailers have access to the new features without paying any additional fees.

Building a new flywheel

To link retailers and customers, Google is attempting to build a new flywheel when Amazon poses a challenge to its most important market. As it continues to monetise the channel, eMarketer claims that Amazon is displacing Google as the market leader in search advertising. According to the survey, Amazon’s search ad market share is anticipated to reach 20 per cent by the end of 2022. Also, Google wants to improve its search tools to make purchases easier for the typical user.

When a customer searches for products using language and phrases, Amazon has, to some extent, become the search engine for shopping. But Google is attempting to find out how to take the usefulness of their core business and tie it to more image-based and lifestyle-based buying to try to grab some of the browsing and early search that occurs on Instagram and TikTok, similar to how Amazon was able to steal share from them.

With these new features, Google is focused on building the tools to make those shopping moments more natural and intuitive. 

Google has unlocked three major themes with these features; 

1. It is building a more modern and visual shopping experience
2. It is giving people the ability to shop with confidence
3. It is making shopping more personal

Shop the look

Google has also introduced a new “shop the look” feature to assist users in putting together new outfits. For instance, Google’s new tool will display photos of bomber jackets and related items along with alternatives for where to buy them within a search. A number of Google’s new services, including “search with store” and a purported “buying guide,” have been broadly implemented for all types of businesses. However, the business added that some of the other products, such as “shop the look” and “shop with 3D,” will roll out gradually between November and December.

Retail-specific ad features

Google has increased efforts to make it simpler for businesses to sell on Google during the past couple of years. For instance, to increase the number of merchants using its marketplace, Google offered it free for vendors to list during the epidemic. Google has also added more retail-specific ad features to its ad tools, such as the ability for businesses to develop shopping campaigns that highlight regionally relevant inventory. More recently, Google has encouraged businesses to use its ad products to attract new loyalty program members.

Additionally, Google has built integrations that enable shops to submit their full product catalogue to third-party ecommerce sites like Shopify, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce. Google said the number of product listings in their AI-powered shopping graph increased by 50 per cent in 2017, to develop this graph. Making things free and providing a wonderful merchant experience where customers can contribute has helped the company.

In the end, Google is attempting to compete with Instagram with these new features. Instagram is still a crucial platform for discovery, even if the photo-sharing app said earlier this month that it was reconsidering its shopping approach and trying “Tab Lite,” a less complex and personalised version of the shopping tab. Google has yet to historically be where people seek fashion ideas, even if it’s where they turn when they’re ready to shop for a new TV or mattress. Google is now attempting to change that.

Google is looking for a new middle ground between browsing and purchasing. This is about Google trying to figure out methods to defend search by making search more relevant to the purchasing process by recognising the function that search now plays in the shopping process because of the emergence of Instagram and TikTok.