Google Shopping arrives in Italy, price comparison sites tremble

Although only in the beta version, the antechamber of the final release, Google Shopping debuts in Italy, simultaneously with Spain and the Netherlands. Google Shopping is a channel that the Mountain View search engine has dedicated to retailers and consumers. A sort of dedicated channel following what it already does with other realities such as, for example, Google News. The reason why Google wanted to separate shopping from organic search or at least not fill organic search with online stores is soon said. Primarily, thinking about Google’s original mission, there is the information factor. The web grows exponentially and with it the amount of content becomes more and more unmanageable also due to a high number of spam sites. To think badly, however, all this follows the logic of Google AdWords (Google’s paid advertising system) which thanks to extensions can present in Google Shopping the advertisers’ products in a relevant form. A solution sought by Google following the decline of AdWords advertisers which in the last two years has marked a slower pace than in previous years.

Price comparison sites tremble
It’s called Google Shopping but it could also be called Google price comparison. After all, Google Shopping is nothing more than an area of the search engine where the consumer can make purchases by comparing prices. The added value for the final consumer is undeniable who will be able to count on the power of a search engine that, in more than two decades, has gathered a large amount of consumer data but it is equally understandable what all this means for Google. Being able to rely on profiled data of final consumers that Google Shopping will collect with greater detail provides an indisputable value for Big G. However, there will be sites that have made price comparison their business that over time will lose value and competitiveness. The reasons are multiple:

• one cannot compete with a giant like Google;
• retailers will be fascinated by the allure of free while price comparison sites ask for payment per click on the ad;
• consumers use Google before landing on price comparison sites, now they will use Google to land on Google Shopping.

How Google Shopping works
Consumers looking for a product just have to click on the “Shopping” tab found on the left side of the search engine or type http://www.google.it/shopping in the address bar of your browser.
Shop owners, on the other hand, will be able to list products free of charge in the Google Merchant Center.