Google to be a Tough Competition for Amazon
The commerce doors are shut due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the retail sector is facing many threats.
Google is advancing plans to make selling on ‘Google Shopping’- free of charge for merchants. The move will be in place by April-end in the US and by this year-end in other markets. With this, merchants will be allowed to list their products on Google Shopping platforms and reach customers without paying any fees, except for promoting their store.
Google’s President of Commerce division, Bill Ready wrote in a blog post, “In light of these challenges, we’re advancing our plans to make it free for merchants to sell on Google.” He also said, “With hundreds of millions of shopping searches on Google each day, we know that many retailers have the items people need in stock and ready to ship, but are less discoverable online.”
With millions of people stuck at home and many physical stores shut down or with heavily restricted access, online shopping has seen a huge boost.
Ready also wrote, “The aim is to expand this globally before the end of the year. Our help centre has more details on how to participate in free product listings and Shopping ads.”
Partnering with PayPal
Google is also set to roll out a new partnership with PayPal to allow merchants to link their accounts. This will speed up the onboarding process and ensure surfacing the highest quality results for the users. It is perhaps in talks with its existing partners that help merchants manage their products and inventories, including Shopify, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce. This will ensure more access to digital commerce for businesses of all sizes.
Concluding, Ready wrote:
“Solutions during this crisis will not be fast or easy, but we hope to provide a measure of relief for businesses and lay the groundwork for a healthier retail ecosystem in the future.”
What is in for the Retailers and Consumers?
The retailers will gain free exposure to millions of people who come to Google every day for their shopping needs. The consumers will benefit from a large variety of products from more stores, discoverable through the Google Shopping tab.
An existing user of Merchant Centre and Shopping ads, don’t have to do anything to take advantage of the free listings. As for the new users of Merchant Centre, Google will continue working to streamline the onboarding process over the coming weeks and months. Google specifically states that Google Shopping will consist ‘primarily’ of free listings.
Google argues free listings means retailers will gain free exposure to millions of people, and shoppers will get more products from more stores. Opening Google Shopping to everyone means more products available to consumers. This for sure is going to be a tough competition spot for ecommerce platforms like Amazon.
