Google's Retail Search: the bigger picture

When it comes to eCommerce sites, on-site search functionality typically has higher conversion rates than navigation. This provides a huge opportunity to drive sales growth, so long as users can find what they are searching for.?

That’s where Google’s Retail Search comes in. Google Cloud announced the release of Retail Search on 1 April, 2022, which is a tool designed to give retailers the capabilities of Google’s search engine on their own domains.??

The tool is aimed at eCommerce retailers as a way of improving on-site shopping cart abandonment by consumers, particularly when using the on-site search. Google estimates that in the U.S. alone, retailers are losing out on $300 billion in sales from search abandonment. In Australia, the figures are $21.4 billion, approximately 34% of all eCommerce sales in Australia for 2021.?

In a nutshell, Retail Search provides eCommerce retailers with search algorithm smarts on-site, aiming to provide a better user experience and more accurate results from searches and thus, higher conversions.??

Some of the benefits of Retail Search include:?

• Ability to search for products with an image?
• Being customisable?
• AI learning to continually optimise results?
• Connectivity with Google Analytics, Tag Manager, Merchant Centre, Cloud Storage and BigQuery?
• Being able to hypothetically understand the intent behind non-product related queries.?

Whilst the concept of utilising Google’s complex algorithm on-site to better convert customers seems like a hugely enticing prospect, there are several considerations for established eCommerce retailers on whether Retail Search is beneficial in the bigger picture.?

• For many big retailers, on-site search is a crucial place to push high margin products and showcase new product ranges. Will the customisable elements allow you to achieve this??
• How well does it integrate with your overall user experience? Will it feel like a seamless aspect of your overall site design and functionality??
• Will Google monetise this solution? Will you start to see ‘organic’ products pushed further down the page to accommodate paid advertising??

Head of Experience and eCommerce Gavin McColl, comments:

"Implementing Retail Search will come on a case-by-case basis, and whilst on-site represents a huge opportunity to increase growth, search alone isn’t the only solution. I’d like to see online retailers adopt a holistic approach to eCommerce where solutions like Retail Search form a piece of the puzzle, seamlessly integrated into a bigger growth strategy that includes SEO, CRO and paid campaigns."

It's early days, so watch this space.