Google has sent its new Shopping tab live, and it’s already proving tough competition for Amazon in the US.
Originally announced back in May, Google’s new search feature takes advantage of the company’s extensive search knowledge to present you with personalised product recommendations based on your recent web activity.
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The company has also introduced a shipping guarantee to encourage trust in its suppliers. The ‘Buy with Google Guarantee’ sticker appears on selected products and promises shoppers a refund if their delivery is wrong or late.
The company doesn’t have any plans in place to start shipping products itself, in the way that Amazon does, but the guarantee does seem to pull Google into the shipping process more so than it has been in the past.
Google has partnered with specific retailers in the US to list exclusive offers. These retailers include Walmart, Costco and Target.
Unlike Amazon, Google Shopping won’t show you related products from other brands if it doesn’t have what you’re looking for. This means that if you’re open to similar products from other brands, you’re somewhat out of luck with Google Shopping.
The good news is you probably won’t have to dig through pages of unrelated junk when you decide to arrange your search from lowest price to highest.
Google Shopping comes in the wake of Google losing a significant amount of ground to Amazon in recent years, as customers have increasingly chosen to bypass the search engine and go directly to Amazon’s online marketplace. This has reportedly resulted in companies pushing half of their search budget to Amazon, leading to big losses for Google.
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Google Shopping is only available for users in specific locations and customers must be logged into their Google accounts. The revamped portal doesn’t seem to be live in the UK yet, as visits to the Google Shopping website continue to redirect to the old search engine page.
However, the platform has already undergone testing in France and has just become available in the US, so it is unlikely we’ll have to wait long to try out the upcoming online marketplace here in Blighty.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
