Google’s Parallel Shopping Universe
Jun 28th, 2010 by admin
What is coming after the current conventional shop systems? Google is following a very interesting e-commerce strategy which at the current time concentrates more on individual shopping components (search, checkout, product database, etc.) rather than on an integrated shopping solution.
In focus besides the Merchant Center (formerly Google Base) is now the search: with Google Commerce Search, merchants can run customized shop searches.
Google has introduced in version 2.0 a few new features which will allow merchants to add tailor made search driven navigation independent of the already implemented shop system.
“Today were introducing a full merchandising dashboard, which gives merchants more control over promotions, ranking rules and filtering.
Marketers and product merchandisers can now do all of this themselvesno custom code necessary.
New intuitive retailer controls like time-based promotions, navigation bar with filters, and simple product ranking rules mean seasonal optimizations can be done on the fly.”
Innumerable exceptional cases can now be implemented above and beyond the standard Google search. The adaptations seem to have been based on demands from existing users of the Google Commerce service, who wanted more manual control over the automated search settings. VentureBeat gives examples:
“Now retailers can decide what options users get alongside their search (for example, a furniture site can adjust the settings so that users can narrow their search results by product type, brand, or price), can set very specific rules for which products rank higher during search (so that a certain brand and price range is prioritized for laptop searches, while another brand and price is prioritized for office chairs), and also create limited-time promotions. “
Above the search itself, Google has upgraded the navigation features:
“Many shoppers depend on the search bar on retail sites when theyre looking to make a purchase, but some people will always prefer to navigate through different categories and discover new products.
Now, Google Commerce Search allows visitors to shop by browsing around your site as well as searching directly for products.”
The search navigation thus gradually encompasses the navigation structure of current shop systems and as a result they are pushed further and further into the background.
Google seems to be slowly growing a form of parallel shop system which is coming through the back door.
The Google Commerce Search results/structure is logically also integrated into the Google-wide product search. The product data of the shops are transmitted to Google which stores the data for Google Product Search as well as then indexing the shops using the search technology.
That Google is refining its e-commerce strategy is obvious, but the big question is, in which direction? Google is being steered by longtime eBay manager Stephanie Tilenius, who has recently been given responsibility over Googles e-commerce activities.
Currently Google Commerce Search, Google Checkout and others are only available in the USA and England.
Originally posted in German by Marcel Weiss, adapted for excitingcommerce.com by Jason Soo.[source:excitingcommerce.com]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snl1SM4KWz8[/youtube]
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