Google Shopping just got a major overhaul (GOOGL)

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Google has overhauled its Google Shopping experience by merging Google Shopping and Google Express, and as part of this change the Google Express app will become Google Shopping, TechCrunch reports. Google Shopping will have a new home page where customers can filter products by features and brand as well as read reviews and watch videos about items.

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Some products will also have a blue shopping cart button that customers can use to add items to a cart that’s universal across Google services; purchases from this cart include customer service and easy returns.

Shopping ads are also being revamped to make them more useful to sellers: Merchants can now decide what Google services (e.g. Images Search, Google.com) their ads display on and can even use ads to point customers toward in-store pickup.

Here’s what it means: This upgrade makes Google Shopping much more useful to both shoppers and merchants.

More product information and a universal shopping cart make for a seamless and informative shopping experience. Offering reviews and videos caters to consumer preferences: A whopping 97% of US consumers look at reviews when making purchase decisions, and 95% read more than one. And increased amounts of visual content plays well with millennial and Gen Z shoppers.
Better ad presence and the ability to display various pickup or delivery options can help sellers be more effective. The Google ecosystem includes several highly popular services like Image Search and YouTube, so letting brands and retailers choose which services to target potential customers on is a powerful tool to offer. Additionally, enabling partners to promote buy online, pickup in-store (BOPIS) allows them to draw attention to a feature that could help drive sales.

The bigger picture: The revamped Google Shopping is likely designed to put Google in a better position to compete directly with Amazon in e-commerce.

Google Shopping’s new features seem specifically aimed at wresting sellers and customers from Amazon, but it may not be enough. The changes to Google Shopping seem like they could help Google convert its popularity as a search engine into e-commerce prowess, but its ability to do so is constrained by the power of Amazon.

When consumers search for a new product, 66% start on Amazon, and if they know the specific item they want, that number grows to 74%. This begs the question of whether Google has waited too long to try to convert its popularity into e-commerce market share.

If online shoppers already consider Amazon their jumping-off point for online shopping, even a new shopping offering from Google likely won’t be enough to rattle the e-commerce leader. However, if Google can draw some high-profile partners, it could make incremental progress.

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