Amazon has ruled the online shopping space for years now. It made Jeff Bezos the richest man on earth as there was no solid competition. Other online shopping platforms like Flipkart, Myntra, Jabong, etc. stand nowhere near Amazon. There was no real competition but now Google has decided to enter the online shopping space with Google Shopping platform.
Google Shopping is not like traditional shopping platforms. They are using the infrastructure already laid out by Google and shop owners. Users can discover and compare millions of products from thousands of stores all in one place and when they are ready to buy, they can choose to purchase either online or in a nearby local store, or directly from retailer’s website on Google. The last part is not yet live but will be available soon.
All this sounds amazing and it is but it seems that Google is insulating and protecting its products and platforms by keeping users on Google. Google is delivering so much now on Google and that is only going to become more and more habit building.
The Google Shopping homepage shows personalized recommendations which are based on past purchases, your shopping list, and recently viewed items. When you want to buy a product, all you need to do is search for the product in the search bar and apply the filters. This is exactly like Amazon and a few other platforms. Google has brought all the marketplace and retailers on Google which is exactly what Amazon did a few years ago. The new product page will have all the information that a buyer needs to make a decision including product reviews or videos of people unboxing and using the item.
When the user has decided the item to buy, they can decide buying option which works the best for them. Either you can go to the retailer’s website straight from Google Shopping, or you can go to the nearby local store that has the item available. Also, the user can purchase the item from a retailer directly from the Google Shopping platform. The return process is simple and is backed by excellent customer service. All transactional and shipping information is stored in Google Profile which can be accessed anytime by the user.
The Google Shopping platform is life in France and the people of the US will be able to use it in the coming months. Google has become scary powerful in the last decade or so. The shopping cart functionality of Google Shopping will actually extend beyond Google Shopping. The voice assistant and Google search will allow the user to directly enter their query via voice or text input and the results page will show items from Google Shopping and the user can purchase directly from there. Also, if you want to purchase a particular dress or shoes, you can look it up on Google Images and it will combine results from Google Shopping as well so that you can directly make the purchase. YouTube users can buy the products shown in the video they are currently watching while the video continues playing. All these functionalities are lined up for release later this year.
If you want to sell your products or services on Google Shopping platform, all you need to do is a signup for the shopping actions program. Thousands of retailers have done this already and are participating in this program. All this is an attempt to overtake Amazon in their own game. So it will be interesting to see how things shape up from here for both Amazon and Google.
