Hey SMBs - Google's Coming for E-commerce: Time to Step Up Your Game

Listen up, small and medium-sized business owners, mom and pop’s, independents -- I'm talking to you.

YOU are the backbone of American business.

YOU have been holding your own against Amazon and the Big Boxes.

It is a tough gig, and those that know, appreciate it.

Well, brace yourselves for another contender - A Giant.

Google is making Big Moves in E-comm Space this Year

No longer content with the Ultimate Champion of Search Title, it seems Goggle wants a bigger piece of pie, and they're not messing around.

If you have been paying attention, you recognized that something hinky in the internet search space has been going on for quite some time now.

In May of 2023, Google dropped the first of many big bombshells with an update that placed more weight on "product review content" (Google Search Central Blog, 2023), and update after update your online presence seems to have shrunk.

Newsflash, it is only going to get worse.

What does their new found interest in retail mean for you?

If you're a retailer not in the e-commerce game, you're about to become digitally invisible.

How do we know? We've done a little snooping. Here's just the tip of some of its retail efforts. They include beefing up their Shopping Graph, an AI-powered beast that now understands over 35 billion product listings, up from 24 billion just a year ago (Search Engine Land, 2023) introducing a "Shopping Experience Scorecard" (Google Merchant Center Help, 2024).

And, even more recently, search experts have discovered retail being pushed to the top of the page ranks.

They're not just dipping their toes in the e-commerce waters. Google is doing a full on cannonball.

I know what you're thinking. "Great, another tech giant to compete with. How am I supposed to keep up?"

I hear you. The numbers aren't pretty.

Small businesses account for 44% of U.S. economic activity (U.S. Small Business Administration, 2023), and 95% of the #Long Island Business market, a share that is under threat.

Stats are great, here is another one...

$68 of every $100 spent at a local small business stays in the local economy. For big chains? It's only $43 (National Federation of Independent Business, 2022).

As e-commerce grows, local circulation is at risk, so all of you networking wealth managers, insurance agents, HR resources, IT professionals, web developers and marketers (yep, people like me, it affects us too!)

But here's the thing. Google is muscling in on Amazon's turf. Is that an opportunity for your golden ticket?

Here are the magic words: Artificial Intelligence.

AI is the great leveler (if I can do it so can you). It's your secret weapon to compete in the e-commerce big league.

Think personalized shopping experiences. Efficient inventory management. 24/7 customer service. Targeted marketing. All on a SMB budget.

(Help me, help you, then I guess, by proxy help me again.)

This is your wake-up call. E-commerce isn't the future.

It's the now. With Google stepping into the your ring, you can't afford to sit on the sidelines.

Start today:

• Embrace e-commerce.
• Invest in AI. It's your equalizer.
• Build a killer online presence.
• Use data (which is also an AI thing) to really understand your customers.

It is the fight of a lifetime, tech titans are duking it out. Youu might be an underdog, but with AI in your corner, you have a fighting chance.

Take the shot.

Give us a shout. We'll show you how AI can transform your business and help you throw punches with the big guys in the digital age.

Game on, SMBs. Let's do this.

#SMBs #AIfirstbusiness #marcom #Independentbusiness #ecommerce #retail #omnichannel #ecomm