A new delivery service called Shopping Express is being trialled in the San Francisco Bay area by Google. The search engine giant will convey purchases made from online companies to the customer, with same-day service an option. A third party will collect purchases from local stores before delivering to customers, according to information from Reuters. Shopping Express will rival companies like Amazon, which have benefited from offering the service.
The initiative indicates that Google intends to expand into the world of e-commerce, as well as concentrating on its search engine. Google has yet to decide how to charge for it, as it remains to be seen how much of a success it will be. The options that have been mooted include a yearly subscription, or possibly a small charge to cover the delivery.
Google Shopping Express may be the start of a marketplace by Google similar to Amazon and eBay, which have both been successful. If Google succeeds in making the new delivery service a viable business, it could have a huge impact on revenue for merchants. The development could also have implications on the SEO campaign of modestly sized companies, as the recent trend for search has been localisation. If a smaller retailer in the area can deliver the item on the same day it is purchased, it may be given precedence over larger, more centralised retailers on Google’s SERPs.
If companies from Liverpool to LA have to get to grips with Shopping Express, they may need to fine tune their search engine optimisation strategy.
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