As the pandemic continues to move shopping online, Google is adding new tools to make its Shopping tab more competitive and robust so users will know they’re getting the best deals.
“When looking for competitively priced products, 40 percent of global shoppers say they turn to Google to find the best deal,” Bill Ready, Google’s president of commerce, said in a blog post on Thursday (Oct. 22).
New features being added to Google Shopping include price tracking across online and local merchants, curbside and in-store pickup availability, price insights, purchasing options and deal notifications. Integration with Google Lens will help buyers find products similar to what they have or like something they found online.
The new features will also help merchants attract more attention to their deals, reach new people and meet shoppers’ demands. Google said that approvals will be faster for the holiday season and new seller tools will help merchants derive meaning from collected data.
“Running promotions on Google helped us exponentially grow demand and ROI,” Emily Kulcyk, manager of search marketing for Urban Outfitters, said in the blog post. “The faster approval times also drove sales volume for our flash sales because we didn’t miss a portion of the day awaiting review.”
Merchants and product promotions will also be discoverable in more locations across Google. Products being promoted will appear in free lists and on ads in the Shopping tab.
“This means that your promotions will show up in more places, helping you connect with potential customers regardless of whether you advertise with us or not,” Ready said.
Merchants can get in front of potential new local and international customers by opting-in to free listings. According to Google, 58 percent of U.S. shoppers in the last holiday season purchased at least one new brand that they had never bought previously.
Verified U.S. retailers can also connect their online stores to their Google business pages to make it easier for local shoppers to place holiday orders. Other tools for merchants include customer optimization, new layouts and displays, and video uploads.
In August, Google teamed with the UPS-owned Ware2Go to speed up shipping times. Google said retailers promoting free and fast shipping saw a 9 percent boost in overall conversion rates.
Google Shopping first started expanding with more tools and features in 2017, including showing buying guides for broad categories and adding more information for specific product searches.
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