The online shopping space is dominated by Amazon, which is increasingly expanding to physical locations with Whole Foods, stores, and pickup lockers. Retailers like Target and Walmart are building out online services, while Google has a competing solution. A new report today reveals a rebrand of Google Express to Google Shopping, while better leveraging YouTube.
According to The Information, Google has a plan to challenge Amazon especially in light of its traditional advertising business seeing slower growth. This plan involves “rapidly adding retailers” to Google Express, despite recently losing Walmart.
Existing partners include Costco and Target, with users able to order from several stores using payment information and addresses already tied to their Google Account. It also allows for integration with Google Assistant and voice shopping.
Of note is a reported rebrand of Google Express to Google Shopping, which is already an existing service integrated into Google.com as a search engine for products. Today, Google Shopping links to various retailers, with one of them often being Google Express.
In integrating these two services, Google can provide one destination for users to visit. Google is already testing the revamped Shopping internationally with a new personalized homepage. Last December, Indian users visiting shopping.google.com on the desktop and mobile web started seeing a feed of products in various carousels. Categories include Popular on Google, Top Deals, and Picks for you.
The Shopping home page is a new made-to-browse destination for shoppers to search across multiple product categories and find products from thousands of retailers. To make the shopping experience richer, we have added some smart features, including price drops and a collection of the most popular products on Google.
Other features of the homepage include a Recently viewed section that remembers your viewing history with each card featuring an image, price, and name. Clicking into a product page will reveal an interface that is similar to the existing one in Google Search’s Shopping tab.
In March, it expanded to France, while the new icon for Google Shopping is already visible stateside. The Information also reported on YouTube testing product prices and recommendations below videos.
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