Alphabet Inc.’s Google redesigned its shopping website to better match consumers with merchant storefronts, seeking to distinguish the platform from e-commerce sites such as Amazon.com Inc. The updated shopping experience largely revolves around scrollable feeds akin to a social media app. A new home page will display a personalized feed of products, reviews and auto-playing video shorts from Google’s YouTube. A Deals page will host a similar curated feed of discounted items.
Searches on Google Shopping will return artificial intelligence-generated blurbs explaining important factors to consider for specific merchandise, like the type of material of a jacket meant for a wet climate. The features will initially be available in the US.
The redesign is the company’s latest move to keep users on Google’s platform longer when researching anything from recipes to flights, rather than immediately diverting them to external websites. In May, the company introduced AI Overviews, which summarize the contents of search results, a feature some critics argue could reduce clicks through to websites that earn ad revenue from visits.
Alphabet shares rose less than 1% to $165.79 at 11:45 a.m. Tuesday in New York. The stock had jumped 18% this year through Monday’s close.
Unlike the digital marketplaces of fellow technology giants Amazon and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., Google Shopping doesn’t sell or ship products; it just shows customers where they can buy items.
“We see ourselves playing a different role” than Amazon, Maria Renz, Google vice president and general manager of commerce, said in an interview prior to the announcement. “Google has always been about promoting a healthy ecosystem.”
Shoppers can fully research a potential purchase without ever leaving Google’s variety of websites — from viewing suggested items on Google Shopping to watching product review videos on YouTube to locating brick-and-mortar sellers on Google Maps.
But the company’s suite of heavily integrated products could be at risk. After a landmark antitrust ruling found Google illegally monopolized the search market, the US Justice Department is considering calling for a breakup that could spin off major parts of the company’s portfolio, including the Chrome internet browser and the Android operating system.
Google hasn’t considered directly challenging e-commerce storefronts by handling payment and shipping within Google Shopping, executives said.
“Since we don’t have inventory, we don’t take payment, we don’t ship anything — we’re also not trying to maximize profit on a per product basis,” Sean Scott, vice president and general manager of consumer shopping at Google, said in an interview. Scott calls that a “unique advantage.”
Regarding the ability to check out and pay on Google Shopping, “I would never say never,” Scott said. “We’re just trying to help connect consumers with merchants.”
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