May 18, 2015
If Google has its way, you could find a 'Buy' button accompanying those search results very soon.
According to a Wall Street Journal report, the search giant will introduce buy buttons in search results some time in the next few weeks, citing sources familiar with the rollout. The buttons would appear alongside paid search results on mobile in the "Shop on Google" section, starting with a small number of searches. A Google spokesperson declined to comment.
Shoppers who click on a buy button will be shuttled to another Google product page, where they can customize their orders and choose a shipping method before completing their purchase. Currently, users who click on items in the "Shop on Google" section, are shuttled to the product page on the retailer's site, making for an uneven shopping experience, depending on how easy or challenging it is to navigate around the retailer's site.
While the products will still be sold by independent retailers (not Google) — and Google does not plan on taking a cut from each purchase — adding a buy button feature is more significant for Google than it might seem, at first. Google.com remains the number one most-trafficked site and most-used search engine in the world — a potent combination, given it already plants paid ads atop search pages for retailers.
A buy button could make it easier for Internet users to purchase from inside their search results, allowing for a more consistent shopping experience and potentially reducing the number of clicks needed to make a transaction.
The feature also helps better position Google as an e-commerce force against companies like Amazon, with its 270 million-plus shoppers each month, and eBay, which reports more than 157 million users. Google, undoubtedly would like to reach a point where its own marketplace experience is so simple and low-friction that many Internet users would rather do their shopping right from their Google search results instead of heading elsewhere.
In recent years, the tech giant has slowly inched its way into e-commerce, streamlining paid search results, and rolling out its same-day delivery service, Google Shopping Express, which remains limited to seven U.S. markets, including Manhattan, Chicago, Boston, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco.
Source: Mashable