Have you ever needed something, had no idea where to get it and went straight to Google to type “where do I buy xxx” or “xxx where to buy”?
Well, you’re not alone. Millions of people around the world are doing this and the tech giant is banking on that to make even more profit.
They are now teaming up with big retailers such as Home Depot, Target, Costco, Ulta and Walmart under a new program that lists their products directly on Google Search, on the Google Express shopping service and of course, on Google Assistant on mobile phones and voice devices.
In exchange, the retailers will have to shell out a certain portion of each purchase to Google. However, this is not to be confused with Google ads which is an entirely different thing.
Daniel Alegre, Google’s president for retail and shopping, said in an exclusive interview with Reuters that over the last two years, the amount of people on Google asking where to buy products rose by 85%. Currently however, this searches most often result to Amazon purchases.
Under Google’s new Shopping Actions, retailers such as Walmart and Target can now compete with Amazon in influencing shopper’s purchasing decisions and help them get more purchases made from their mobile phones and smart home devices through voice searches.
But how does this work exactly?
A shopper can search for let’s say, some new curtains on her way home and adds it to her Google Express cart. When she gets home, she realises she also needs cereals so she searches for them using her Google Home and adds them to the cart and purchases all at once. Easy-peasy.
Currently, the new Shopping Actions is available to retailers in the United States. We’ll have to wait to see if they will also implement this worldwide.
