News broke today that Pinterest cofounder Ben Silbermann is stepping down as CEO and that Bill Ready, Google’s former head of commerce and payments, will take over.  

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At this year’s Marketing Live event, Google previewed a number of new shopping experiences that users will soon benefit from. One push for the latter part of this year is highlighting deals in Google Shopping and Search through a new results page.

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Google Shopping has expanded greatly over the past couple of years, and soon, it’s going to add support for a handy feature in Chrome. Soon, Google Chrome will show shopping carts you’ve left open on various sites around the web.

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A new Google Shopping experience that featured a personalized homepage launched in 2019. On Android, Google rebranded the existing Express app to Shopping, but it’s now shutting down the mobile experience in favor of just the web.

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As it does every year, Google is sharing its “Top 100” gifts, a collection of products the company expects to rise in popularity during the month of December. Here’s what took the crown this year.

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For obvious reasons, Google says there’s been a spike over the past few months from customers looking for “curbside pickup” and “safe shopping” options in their local communities. To help serve those needs, Google is introducing a couple of new features including a “nearby” filter so you’ll know when a product you’re looking for is in stock nearby.

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To aid COVID-19 response, it’s now free for retailers to list products on Google Shopping, while they now also appear in Search. The company’s next step is to make “Buy on Google” checkout commission-free.

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Back in April, Google announced that all merchants can have their goods appear for free in the Shopping tab. Those free product listings are now coming to the main Google Search results page.

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In the craziness of a world affected by the coronavirus pandemic, e-commerce has become more popular than ever and has also led to hefty delays in shipping. To help customers find products locally, Google is now showing a “curbside pickup” badge for local shopping ads.

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Google Shopping can be a powerful tool for online retailers to get their products in front of millions of users on the web, but it’s always come with a fee. Today, Google has announced that it will allow any business to list products on Google Shopping for free.

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Online shopping today is incredibly lucrative with various Google products, including a dedicated site, optimized for it. To make it easier to virtually browse, Google Search is bringing together different stores and brands into a new “Product products” card.

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Google today announced its Google Shopping 100, which collates the most trending gifts that have been searched for in the United States — with the Google Home taking the #1 spot in the tech trending list.

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Following the website and mobile apps, the new Google Shopping is officially available in the U.S. This is Google’s new unified service for product lookup and delivery, with Google Lens also picking up a “style ideas” feature today.

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Earlier this week, Google detailed how Express would soon be replaced by Shopping. This transition is now underway with “Google Express” for Android becoming “Google Shopping” with the latest Play Store update.

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After launching Google Shopping a few weeks ago, the company is looking to further consolidate its online shopping experiences. In the “next few weeks,” Google Express will be shut down as it integrates with Shopping.

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Announced at Google Marketing Live in May, the new Google Shopping homepage is live in the United States. Focussed on personalization and browsing, this experience has been in testing around the world since last year.

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Late last year, a revamped Google Shopping was unveiled in India before rolling out to France in March. Alongside ads in the Discover feed, Google at Marketing Live announced the new Google Shopping experience that combines Google Express for a seamless buying experience.

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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.

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Late last year, Google announced a new Shopping experience and homepage that first launched in India. The Google Shopping site has now been spotted in France with its new icon, Material Theme design, and personalized focus.

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Shopping is an important area for Google in light of major competition from Amazon. The company has worked to simplify voice shopping on Google Home, add style search to Lens, and expand its Express delivery service. Google Shopping today is getting a new home page, starting in India.

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In recent months, Google has been making inroads back into the Chinese market through various deals and investments. The latest involves a strategic partnership with JD․com — China’s second largest e-commerce company — to the tune of $550 million.

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Following a massive anti-trust case from the European Union, Google announced yesterday that it was making some big changes to shopping advertisements in search results.

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Google has been involved in a massive antitrust legal battle with the European Union for the past few months and recently, it was handed the largest fine ever for its “Google Shopping” services. Today, Bloomberg is reporting that Google will split off that service in order to meet demands from that case.

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The European Commission has levied its highest ever fine in an antitrust case, ruling that Google must pay €2.42B ($2.72B) for favoring its own shopping comparison service in search results. This is far higher than the €1B fine expected.

Further fines – equivalent to 5% of parent company Alphabet’s daily worldwide turnover – will apply unless Google resolves the issue within 90 days …

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We’re guessing most of us here do as much shopping as possible online, but for those unavoidable store visits, Google has published some infographics showing you the dates and times you want to be a long, long way from them.

Unsurprisingly, consumer electronics stores are busiest on Black Friday, but if you’re determined to snag that bargain despite the crowds, the time you really want to avoid is 2-4pm …  expand full story

Google is giving Ol’ St. Nicholas a run for his money this holiday season because it ALSO knows what people want for the holidays. Rather than getting mail in the North Pole however, Google gets its data via its popular search engine. In data from its Trends platform, it has determined the top trending toys, devices and apparel searches on Google Shopping. An overview from the Commerce blog:

• Game consoles and tablets continue to be the top gifts trending on Google Shopping, but wearable technology such as the “fitbit” is also on the rise this month.
• Certain retro toys are making a comeback this season. Thanks to the new movie “Ouija,” searches for “Ouija boards” are up 300% since October. And queries for “Barbie Dream House” and “My Little Pony” are up as well compared to last month. ⁶
• Cold-weather staples, such as “Hunter boots” and “Canada Goose jackets,” are among the most popular apparel searches, up 46% and 140%, respectively, since October. But “jogger pants” are the newcomer gift this season, up 39% from October. ⁷

But the most important data they pulled, especially if you are a clueless father like myself, is the top 10 Kids’ gifts list. Without further ado, in order:

1. American Girl

2. My Little Pony

3. Paw Patrol

4. Lego Friends

5. Ouija Board

6. Peppa Pig

7. Shopkins

8. Nerf Guns

9. Barbie Dream House

10. Zoomer Dino

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If you want to check out what deals are available online before you hit the stores on Black Friday, Google has just made the task a little easier with revamped Google Shopping results.

Google Shopping results now include more detailed product information, customer reviews and show which stores have it in stock. Selected products also have 360-degree views …  expand full story

In a blog post, Google today announced that it is adding product ratings to its Product Listing Ads within searches. The stars will come from a variety of reviews and sources, including merchants, third-party review sites, users, and more. Google says that adding product ratings to its Listing Ads within searches will drive higher traffic through these ads. The company claims that this change also helped increase click-through rates of Product Listing Ads in early testing.

We believe these ratings will help differentiate products across google.com and google.com/shopping and will help merchants drive more qualified traffic through Product Listing Ads. In initial tests, product ratings also helped increase click-through-rates of Product Listing Ads.

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Google is taking a step towards advancing its e-commerce business, by purchasing London-based Rangespan, which has developed a unique tech that helps retailers forecast products and services that will be high in demand in the future.

A message on Rangespan’s website confirmed the buyout today. “We are very happy to announce that Rangespan is joining Google,” the company wrote. “We will continue to work on services for shoppers and retailers at Google, and we’re super excited about the opportunities to come. As part of the change, we will wind down Rangespan’s services. We’ve already begun working individually with each of our retailers and suppliers on this process.”

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Back in November of 2012, Google acquired the then 2-year old startup BufferBox. BufferBox was a service that provided customers with temporary lockers in certain locations to accept packages at from online retailers. At the time of the acquisition, Google said that BufferBox would “keep doing BufferBox,” but today, Google has announced that it is shutting the service down.

The BufferBox team now says it will work to “bring the learnings, technology and expertise of the team to future Google Shopping products.”

For those that are BufferBox customers, the company says it will stop accepting packages on March 31st, 2014 and that the last day to pickup packages is April 21, 2014. More details can be found on BufferBox’s FAQ page.

Since being acquired by Google, BufferBox has spread from its home Waterloo, Ontario to other cities such as San Francisco. We can only assume that Google will still continue to expand the self-serve pickup idea, but without the BufferBox branding.

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Photo: npr.org

After more than three years of investigations and negotiations, Google and the European Union anti-trust authorities have finally settled the case in which the company was accused of abusing its dominant position in search.

The tl;dr version of the dispute was that Google search results were giving undue prominence to its own services – such as Google News and Google Shopping – and freezing out rivals. Google was eventually given a deadline of 31st January last year to submit proposals on how it would resolve the problem …  expand full story

Google today announced some nice additions to its Google Shopping service available to users browsing for products in Google search and directly through the Google Shopping site on desktop and mobile. In addition to new curated shopping lists from some of its partners (note: These are Google’s partners buying paid product listing ads), Google Shopping also receives an updated look and feel, part of an ongoing update that Google started rolling out back in October with an updated storefront and improved local listings.

One new feature in the redesigned shopping experience pictured above is the ability create your own shortlists that are easily accessible from the top of each page while browsing: expand full story

Google announced on the Google Commerce blog today that it is finally bringing the previously tablet-only Google Catalogs shopping experience to the web. The catalogs will now be available to browse through any web browser as part of Google Shopping, and they will feature the same collection of issues from partners such as Eddie Bauer, J.Crew, and Williams Sonoma. To visit Google Catalogs on the web, go to www.google.com/shopping/catalogs

Once you find a catalog you like, click on the issue to open the catalog viewer where you can flip through catalog pages and zoom in to see products up close. To view information about specific products, roll your mouse over the page and click the tag for the product you’re interested in. This opens a box with more information, additional views, and price. Clicking ‘View Details’ takes you directly to the retailer’s site to learn more or make a purchase.

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKXPeIeKYd8]

Google announced today a new pilot program called Trusted Stores. Trusted Stores will give shoppers a piece of mind when shopping online, telling them which stores ship on time, have good customer support, etc. Once awarded the Trusted Badge, credited stores can display it on their website (seen after the break).

If a company would like to participate they need to provide Google with information regarding shipping, and Google will also collect information from the store’s customers. Here’s a part we really like: if a customer decides to select free protection from Google, they will receive help from Google if a problem ever arises. Google will also offer a $1,000 lifetime protection package. Expect this to start popping up around the web a lot more.

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