Google offers a hosted eCommerce solution

Google understands more than most the benefit of an optimised store designed to generate more revenue.

google-commerce-solutionGoogle has released a new product to its impressive list of hosted solutions which include Google AdWords, Google Analytics, Google Apps and Google Maps.  The new product Google Commerce Search seeks to fill the gap between website visitors “buyers” and purchase “Checkout” and capture a greater share of the market.

Google understands more than most the benefit of an optimised store designed to generate more revenue.  The new store seeks to roll out some of the features of Google SiteSearch into a hosted store product. The new store works to offer an improved shopping experience:
  • find the right products faster
  • filter results by category,price,brand
  • user-friendly spelling options
  • website optimiser
  • boost or promote products in search results
  • deploy solutions in days
  • scale your online store

google-store-error

Google Commerce Search
works to take away the resources required to run a typical e-commerce site. But its first version appears to have been released into the market far too early. One of the most common features I regularly saw was error pages…
Currently you can see a live versions of its hosted Commerce product on the US version of Google Store and play with some of its filter and sort features.  Our initial review makes the community think they have placed design and google search optimisation as future feature to be added in a later version. From our agency consulting projects we have discovered that design and search optimisation is one of the most important features of any e-commerce store and one that should not be a left out.
google-commerce-youtube-store
Seo risks using it?
Another secondary issue that has been discussed is that if you are sending all your traffic to a Google hosted site using search optimisation you would be advised to be careful how aggressive you are.  If you are in a highly competitive industry and your agency is starting to move towards blackhat methods this product may not be the best solution for you…
Are you currently spamming for traffic?
Overly paranoid marketers are starting to wonder if even using certain affiliate marketing programs or paid referral links which are overly aggressive there is a chance that you might get caught out if you are sending all this traffic to Google.  Google has been working to weed out spammy or low quality affiliates in their rankings over the past few months.  So the initial feeling is that if you are breaking some of the many T&C set by the search engines it might not be the best product for you or your clients.

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But i don’t live in USA
The biggest issues are that this product currently only has a small test audience and like most new products will take 1-2 years to be available to markets outside the US. There are existing solutions from leading providers like SLI-Systems that have a managed site search that can be deployed into an existing store, why rebuild your store in a Google Store?
Site search solutions
We like our readers to have some choice in what other solutions are out there that recommend to our clients to use for their projects.  So you can chose to wait for Google Commerce Search to catchup or you can look at a solution such as SLI Sytems that offer a 30 day free trial.
What is learning search?
Systems such as SLI-Systems are a tried and tested solution and we included below a diagram on how simple it is to use their learning search process, we suggest if you are looking to increase your current site conversion rates, you should give their product a try.

One Reply to “Google offers a hosted eCommerce solution”

  • There is a massive change underway in the mobile media market as it becomes unshackled from the operators’ portals that have dominated it for a decade, all without having made any significant inroads into the content use of mobile users. The new capped data packages, fuelled by further competition, will see a total revamp of the mobile media market. It will no longer be based on portals but on direct services by content and services providers via open source phones and mobile-friendly Internet-based services. The next step is the continued emergence of m-commerce and in particular m-payment services. 

    ecommerce

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