4th November 2022

POV: Google's New Shopping Features

Background:

Whilst the advertising world waits to see how the Twitter acquisition could change the social platform, Google is adding new shopping features in time for the holiday shopping season, including promotion badges, coupon clipping and deals comparisons to help users get better shopping deals directly from Search.

Details and Implications:

The search giant has released new features designed to help shoppers find the best deals and discounts across the web more easily, as the holiday shopping season kicks into gear with Black Friday sales.

Coupons and promotions: Google is integrating coupon codes and promotions into search results in the next few weeks to bring seasonal offers and deals to users, without them having to look elsewhere to find them. A new promotion badge will show up on items running a special promotion such as a “15% off with coupon code HOLIDAYS”. Google already shows when items are on sale or the price has dropped, but this new feature will show users specific promotions so they can compare them to others within Search results.

In addition, a new coupon clipping feature will allow users to easily copy promo codes from Search. It’s a feature often seen on coupon sites, where you click to copy the promotion code to your clipboard but integrating the functionality directly into Google Search results means people won’t have to visit coupon sites to find the codes.

Side-by-side deal comparison: Another new feature rolling out in the U.S. this month is a side-by-side comparison display of all the listed items in a relevant product search. For example, if a user searches for a women’s puffer coat, it will show a side-by-side comparison of available puffer coat deals right in the search results. This allows the user to compare shopping deals across retailers within Search, cutting down the research time a shopper needs to find the best deals.

Price insights: Google is bringing its price insights feature, which is currently available in the Shopping tab, to Search to help shoppers understand the prices they see and make better buying decisions. Searchers will be able to see how one merchant’s price compares to others’ and whether it’s low, typical or high for that product.

Merchants will also be able to see how their deals are performing and review their promotions via the Google Merchant Center.

Summary:

Google is adding these features to help shoppers find what they’re looking for ready for the all-important holiday shopping season. The aim is to create a faster and more seamless shopping experience. For brands and retailers, the changes come with more considerations around how people shop, the info they are seeing and how it can be leveraged and how deals match up to competitors. Used well, the changes could be powerful if they appeal to how users are now shopping online.

Further Reading:

TechCrunch | Social Media Today | Search Engine Land | Google Blog

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