Just a year after its official launch in SA, Google Shopping is said to be well received by both brands and consumers.
According to the global search engine, the top 100 shopping Web sites in SA now draw 40% of their traffic from Google search. Google Shopping has been launched in 40 other markets, including the UK, Hong Kong and Brazil. In Africa, SA is the only country it is available in.
Described as an intuitive portal, Shopping is said to have been instrumental for consumers and brands that are trying to venture into the e-commerce landscape.
Linah Maigurira, Google industry manager for retail and e-commerce, says the strategy formed for Shopping is in line with the search engine's mission statement.
"As with our mission statement, we want to organise retailers' information and make it universally accessible to consumers searching for products. Shopping allows users to search for products available from e-commerce sites and compare prices, all in one browser window.
"Users can search for a product and then refine that search based on price and seller. If they see something they like, they click to expand the ad and get more information, and in that moment allow the user to shop right from Google Shopping. We've never had that sort of pairing before.
"The portal uniquely pairs the power of consumers' intent and brings a visual representation or an answer for the intent. We've always had intent and we are still presenting a text-led view of an advert but now brands are able to bring a more visual experience of what they are offering."
Maigurira adds the key success factor of the portal is its machine learning and mobile-centric design.
"We've designed it in such a way that when we present product, we are successfully pairing that level of intent and signal [that consumers exhibit on mobile devices] to present the best possible match. For us, mobile-centric is more than just an experience but also about understanding the context of the user.
"Google has a very robust view of customers because we have seven platforms which each have over a billion monthly active users. We value keywords in a very big way because they give us a layered view of what the mind-set of the customer is."
According to the 2017 Connected Consumer Survey, 2.5 million South Africans shop online. Despite that growth, online still represents a small fraction of total retail sales in SA.
Maigurira, however, says the African market is still open for growth opportunities. "When we look at where SA is [in comparison] to other markets, the growth that we've seen in the product speaks to the sophistication and maturity of the market. The level of adoption of Shopping has grown faster than anticipated - both from a brand and consumer perspective.
"To say only brands that are online will win in the end is very difficult to say - particularly in the African economy. I think brands that will win are the brands that are better positioned to offer customers good experiences, whether online or in-store; the experience will take precedent over placement."
Share