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Search On 22: Google Debuts 9 New Shopping Features

Google shopping experience for users to get an upgrade. At today’s Search On event, Google announced nine new features and tools set to help improve the user experience.

The main theme of the updates is visualization and personalization.

Visualization shopping features

Google has confirmed that users spend a lot of time researching, exploring, and discovering their options before making a purchase. Four features visible to Google users announce:

  • Search using the word “store”. By starting your search with “store” followed by what you’re looking for, you’ll now see a visual feed of nearby products, search tools, and inventory. This update also expands the shopping experience beyond clothing. It is now available in all categories on mobile.
  • Shop the look. For the Apparel category, users will now be able to ‘Shop the Look’ which showcases individual products to help create an entire outfit. The Google tool will display free products for the main product the user is searching for, such as handbags or shoes to match with a blouse or jacket.
  • Feature of popular products. This is a new search feature that will display popular products in the category that users are searching for. Google has confirmed that this will be available later this fall.
  • 3D shopping. Expanding on the previous launch of 3D Shopping for Home Goods, 3D Sports Shoes will come in the following months.

Moreover, Google has announced a way to build and create 3D images because they understand that creating this type of asset takes a lot of time and resources. Their tool will use machine learning to automate the 360-degree rotation using some still images.

Encourage confident buying

The following set of tools announced by Google is designed to help users make informed purchase decisions.

  • Guides for complex purchases. Google has announced a buying guide for complex purchasing decisions. Your buying guide will consist of insights into this category from a range of trusted sources.
  • See what others say. Specifically, in the Google app, Page Insights will be available. This feature links content on a website that users are working on or a product in search of, along with ratings, pros and cons, into a single view.

A more personalized shopping experience

The latest set of updates focus on the individual shopping experience, including improvements to privacy preferences.

  • More personalized results. Users will start getting personalized shopping results based on their previous shopping habits. To protect user privacy with this improvement, users will have the ability to tell Google their preferences directly, as well as easy-to-use controls to toggle the feature on or off.
  • Shop with dynamic filters. Search filters will now adapt to search trends in real time, which means filters are not static.
  • Use the Discover app for more inspiration. Users with the Google app will start to see style suggestions in the Discover tab based on their shopping behavior, if a user sees something they like, they can click on the product and Lens will open providing available choices about where to buy.

Next steps for advertisers

While the Search On event focused on the user experience, many advertisers are wondering how to prepare for these updates.

For advertisers in the ecommerce space, make sure your Merchant Center for Shopping Ads is in top shape. This can include optimizing your images, descriptions, titles, and including as many specifications as possible so that users can better find your products.

More information is coming for marketers to help understand how these user experience updates may affect advertisers. We will continue to report follow-ups from Google as they are announced.


Featured image: Vladimka Productions/Shutterstock

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