Will Google be able to Outsell Amazon with its New Feature, ‘Purchases on Google’?

The Google buy button has been officially rolled out in an experimental phase, with a chosen few retailers and brands taking part in this fresh experiment. The button, ‘Purchases on Google’, aims to fill the gap between product discovery and purchase on mobile devices. Brands and retailers have really been struggling with transforming individuals to turn the time exhausted comparing and researching products on devices into real mobile transactions. The new feature will not be available for desktop searches – Google’s interests lie in the mobile space. Recently, the search giant confirmed that it gets well over 50% of its search volume from mobile devices.

The Key Goal of Google behind Introducing ‘Buy on Google’

Retailers are worried that Google is out to thwart their growth. But according to Google, its key goal is to make it convenient for customers to transact on their smartphones. The intention is also to make mobile search much more competitive in comparison to marketplaces such as Amazon that is already making it easy for customers to initiate purchases over their smartphones.

The main idea behind this move is that customers will visualize Google as a hub for swift product decisions and for on mobile purchasing, and advertisers would be willing to funnel more finances into mobile ads with higher conversion rates. As the shoppable advertisements are projected to witness enhanced mobile conversion rates, sales would become frictionless through mobile transactions done via Google shopping. After Google makes this pilot accessible to some more retailers and brands, shoppers would be witnessing a consistent and seamless buying experience on their smartphones.

The Challenge: The Pairing of Shoppable Advertisements with Google

Although Google’s buy button is new and exciting, order management could create a bigger challenge for Google for the integration of payment, delivery systems, and order tracking on the budding commerce platform. Brands and retailers will have to keep in mind strategies for optimization of the front end demand and will also have to consider ways to cost efficiently and effectively fulfill and deliver products that were sold via new commerce channels.

Additionally, the retailers and brands will require to sync the product catalog as well as systems for order management with Google to ensure that they are getting orders and are processing them within the stipulated time and in return, Google would have to make sure they are featuring products for sale that the retailer or brand actually has in stock.  

Google Might Slow Down the Headway Made by Amazon

With the ‘Buy on Google’ announcement, Google may begin widening the gap that exists between product demand and sales conversion. It additionally puts Google in a state to slow down the headway that has been made by Amazon by its ‘one click’ process of purchasing. At present, CommerceHub is amongst the few companies partaking in the pilot and more brands and retailers will be participating in the second wave. Google could additionally compete better against other social platforms, namely Twitter, Pinterest, and Facebook who have made it evident that they too intend on transforming into ecommerce channels eventually.