Retail news that keeps industry pros in the know
Retail Brew delivers the latest retail industry news and insights surrounding marketing, DTC, and e-commerce to keep leaders and decision-makers up to date.
Google might have recently celebrated its 24th birthday, but now, it’s giving shoppers and merchants a gift.
At its annual Search On livestream event Wednesday, Google introduced a new slate of tools that streamline the shopping experience for consumers and help them more easily access merchants.
One update includes more visual ways to shop. When a consumer searches the word “shop” followed by the item they’re looking for, they’ll see “a visual feed of products, research tools, and nearby inventory related to that product.”
- Additionally, Google is expanding its “shoppable search experience beyond apparel to all categories, from electronics to home goods to beauty.”
- There’s now also a trending products feature within search that shows popular models, brands, and styles across categories.
“We're not a retailer; we're not a marketplace. We're really here to connect shoppers and merchants, and to really try to give the most unbiased, most helpful shopping experience for consumers,” Lilian Rincon, senior director of product management at Google, told Retail Brew.
Google will also be piloting a program for 3D visuals of shoes, starting with sneakers. While some merchant brands already have their own 3D tech integrations, this feature will be available to all merchants. Google can now automate 360-degree spins of sneakers using just a handful of still photos from merchants.
- Earlier this year, Google introduced 3D visuals of home goods to its search function.
- Rincon said shoppers engage with 3D images almost 50% more than static ones. “For merchants, we think that this could be a real game-changer for some of the smaller players.”
Google understands that shoppers want more personalized shopping experiences, Rincon said. When consumers shop on Google, they’ll now be able enter their “preferred department and brands,” and next time when they’re looking for a particular item, the interface will show them similar items from those and similar brands.
“When we talk to merchants, one of the number one things they want is to be discovered by consumers,” Rincon said. “We want to personalize to the brand that they tell us, but also similar brands, and we think that also can really help some of these up-and-coming merchants.”