Google Challenges Amazon With New ‘Buy’ Button
John Lincoln — May 25, 2017 — May 25, 2017
Google is making it possible for e-shoppers to buy directly from the search results. That’s a strategy that’s almost certainly going to eat into Amazon’s market share.
Here’s what you need to know about Google’s plan to place a call to action (CTA) on search ads.
It’s Called Purchases on Google
The program is called Purchases on Google. It’s not new.
Google introduced it back in July of 2015. At that time, though, Purchases on Google was only available to companies by invitation.
Since then, brand names like UGG and Under Armour have participated.
A Quiet Open
Purchases on Google is no longer offered to hand-picked e-tailers only. Recently, Google opened the program to beta testers.
That happened without much fanfare, though. It looks like the company is trying to keep the program quiet.
That makes sense. It’s easier to test results when there aren’t too many testers with data to track.
If you’re interested in becoming one of those testers, you can apply to the beta program here.
It’s in the Merchant Center
So if Google isn’t exactly tooting its own horn about the beta program, how do we know it even exists? Because it’s in the Merchant Center.
If you look at the “Merchant Center Programs” section, you’ll see a block labeled “Purchases on Google.” The description in that block reads as follows: “Help shoppers easily purchase on Google, so you can grow conversions and drive new customers.”
That’s not exactly compelling copy, so you can see once again that Google isn’t bending over backwards to sign up beta testers.
Not yet, anyway.
How It Works
E-tailers who participate in the Purchases on Google program can display a “Buy on Google” button on top of their pay-per-click ads. Shoppers who click the button will be taken to a Google landing page where they can complete the purchase.
However, the button only displays on Android devices. Also, it looks like only shoppers with Google Wallet can participate at this time.
That’s a fairly thin pool of users. Expect Google to increase the marketability of the program in the future.
But the selling point of Purchases on Google is that the whole transaction can be completed within the Google ecosystem. That should worry Amazon management.
Challenge Accepted
Although Amazon is still the most popular e-commerce site in the world, offering a variety of additional perks like fulfillment by Amazon, Prime, and premium services, Google sees this as an important feature to attack first.
How? By offering an added level of convenience to online shopping that Amazon has clearly already had success with.
The “Buy” button appears in the search results. Customers who want to make a purchase don’t even have to visit the website of the company selling the product.
Effectively, Google will become something like a one-stop shop for just about anything people purchase online.
The program also makes life easy for consumers who want to do some comparison shopping. They can use the Google search results to compare prices, evaluate ratings, and finally make a purchase.
It’s hard to believe Amazon will emerge unscathed when Purchases on Google is fully launched.
Bugs in the System
The program is still in its infancy, so it shouldn’t surprise anyone that it’s had some challenges.
For starters, Purchases on Google has experienced integration problems. That’s understandable, because it needs to exchange data with multiple systems.
Also, there have been some tracking issues. There’s no doubt that Google will get those cleaned up, though, because company management understands the importance of analytics.
Finally, some participants in the pilot claim that impression volume for the Purchases on Google ads is fairly low. It appears to be somewhere in the 20-30% range.
Still, Google is one of the best software development companies in the world. You can be sure that its engineers are working feverishly to resolve all outstanding issues.
Something all E-Commerce Sites Should Test
When Purchases on Google is fully implemented, there’s little doubt that the search giant will take a sizeable share of the e-commerce market. Exactly how much remains to be seen, but online e-tailers like Amazon had better have a contingency plan in place. If you are selling products online, I recommend you test this new feature ASAP. It could give a nice bump to your bottom-line.
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