The latest in an ongoing battle between Amazon and Google sees the Wall Street Journal reporting that Google is preparing to take on Amazon with its own unique e-commerce solution. This solution would come in the form of a ‘buy now’ button that may be embedded right into the search engine results pages.
The inclusion of a ‘buy now’ button next to product pages in search results would allow searchers to put the item in a shopping card and check out with a single click. To be sure, Google doesn’t intend to open its own warehouse filled with products. The sales would be fulfilled through third-party retailers.
Another area in which Google intends to compete with Amazon is through a Prime-like subscription service that would offer shoppers free two-day shipping with select retailers for a yearly fee.
Some questions that immediately comes to mind is: If Google is serious about competing with Amazon, does that mean it will down rank Amazon product pages in the SERPs? Will third-party retailers that end up partnering with Google get a boost in the SERPs?
It’s within Google’s rights to do those things in the United States, but I don’t think we’ll be getting answers to those questions any time soon. According to the Wall Street Journal, Google has not confirmed whether or not it is moving ahead with these plans.
WSJ points to the logic behind the plans, saying that data from research firm Forrester indicates that in the last quarter, 39 percent of shoppers in the US began their product search on Amazon, while only 11 percent began their search through a traditional search engine like Google.
Google could potentially grab a larger share of that audience if it offered the ability to buy products directly from the SERPs. If these plans come to fruition we certainly won’t be able to take advantage of Google’s buy now button during this year’s holiday season. Maybe in time from Holiday 2015?
