Following an announcement in their annual Marketing Live conference, Google have officially launched their own shopping platform in the US, with a UK launch yet to be unannounced but planned in the near future.
2019 has been a busy year for Google’s shopping platform. The company increased the reach of shopping network ads by making them available in Google Image results pages, enabling users to visit eCommerce pages and purchase products after searching for an image.
How will this affect businesses?
Currently businesses can retail their products on Amazon and eBay for a fee when they generate a transaction. Google are looking to remove the friction of purchasing through a vendor’s website and reclaim lost ground to Amazon by offering a similar service. Although unconfirmed, their example invoices look to show a 5% commission per sale charged for facilitating the order.
It’s one to watch for businesses when the service is launched in the UK. The success of Amazon has been built on their operational expertise and also the ease of ordering, so removing the friction of the eCommerce journey on your website, and allowing users to purchase directly through Google could potentially have a positive impact on your online conversion rate, however it may be that cost per sale and overall margin will have to be closely monitored.
“Success is the result of perfection, hard work, learning from failure, loyalty, and persistence”
Colin Powell
