Google Gets Into The Shopping Cart Business With Commerce Search

Nov 5, 2009 at 1:25am ET by Matt McGee

Google has just announced a new enterprise search service called Commerce Search. The name might remind you of Froogle, but this is not that kind of commerce/product search. With Commerce Search, Google has created what is essentially a shopping cart solution for online retailers.

Commerce Search, as Google describes it, promises to improve an e-commerce web site’s search and usability. It’s hosted on Google’s servers, and — like any good shopping cart software — offers a variety of customization options, including look and feel, product promotions, and more. Commerce Search also includes some Google search technologies like spellcheck, stemming, and synonym matching, and is integrated with Google Analytics by default.

When combined with Google Checkout — as shown in the introductory video (also embedded below) — this is nothing short of an all-inclusive e-commerce software package. Retailers upload their product data to Google, then customize the search/e-commerce options, and end up with a Google-hosted shopping cart. Pricing is based on how many products/SKUs in the retailer’s data feed, and how searches are done on the retailer’s store.

Here’s Google’s brief introductory video about Commerce Search.

Related Topics: Channel: Other | Google: Enterprise Search | Top News

About The Author: Matt McGee is Editor-In-Chief of Search Engine Land. His news career includes time spent in TV, radio, and print journalism. His web career continues to include a small number of SEO and social media consulting clients, as well as regular speaking engagements at marketing events around the U.S. He blogs at Small Business Search Marketing and can be found on Twitter at @MattMcGee and/or on Google Plus. You can read Matt's disclosures on his personal blog. See more articles by Matt McGee

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singlefeed

Matt – You say ‘With Commerce Search, Google has created what is essentially a shopping cart solution for online retailers,’ but I think this is misleading…although you do explain a bit better later in the post.

With Google Checkout, Google created a shopping cart solution.

Google Commerce Search has nothing to do with a shopping cart solution.

Google Commerce Search is just an enterprise search system which is specialized for commerce. It’s purpose is to allow consumers a better on-site search experience. The specialized commerce search features should help a merchant increase conversion rate. But that does not make it a shopping cart solution. A merchant still needs a shopping cart.

Also, I wouldn’t say that when combined with Google Checkout that this is ‘an all-inclusive e-commerce software package’ as a merchant really still needs an inventory management solution which usually comes with an ecommerce platform as opposed to just a shopping cart program like Google Checkout.
http://blog.sli-systems.com ShaunRyan

I found a few issues with the filters and relevancy with the search on the Google Store: See my post for details: http://www.sli-systems.com/blog/2009/11/google-commerce-search-a-critique.html

I agree with singlefeed – this isn’t a complete shopping cart solution – this is just a search. An online retalier still needs an ecommerce platform that displays product pages etc and ingrates with the rest of their business.
Nextopia

We’re glad Google is raising awareness for the critical need for good site search in eCommerce. Being in the industry we have some good first hand experince on the positive effect search has on conversion. Our company’s commentary on this: http://www.nextopia.com/blog/2009/11/google-launches-commerce-search/
http://www.celebros.com Yossi Hermush

Nobody expects a “1.0” to provide the same coverage as do products that are out there 5, 6, 8 or more years. However, a newcomer has the advantage of bringing a new point of view and learning from other people’s mistakes. This is why we at Celebros (www.celebros.com) are not quick to judge but rather look to learn.

For clients looking to make an immediate investment the choice is clear. Celebros products and services provide a complete answer to your needs and are proven through numerous deployments. In the longer run however – clients are looking at Google’s doings with interest and so are we!