Introducing a new way to retail: Google Commerce Search 3.0

Introducing a new way to retail: Google Commerce Search 3.0: "As we announced on the Official Google Blog, we’ve just launched the third-generation of Google Commerce Search – our search solution for e-commerce websites. For the many retailers already submitting their product data feeds to Google via Product Search, our solution may be an interesting consideration for powering search and browse capabilities on your website.

Google Commerce Search uses your existing product search data feed to power a relevant and completely customizable search experience on your e-commerce website. In fact customers like Woodcraft Supply, HealthWarehouse.com and BabyAge.com have all leveraged this exact data feed to quickly improve their web experience and deliver strong business returns – in the case of Woodcraft.com increasing search revenues 34%.

With the new release, we’re making shopping more interactive, introducing multi-channel product discovery, and providing sophisticated tools to help retailers manage the shopping experience on their site.



Here are some of the cool new features in this release:

• Search As You Type: Search is quickly becoming a more interactive experience. Search As You Type provides instant gratification to shoppers – returning product results with every keystroke, right from the search bar.
  
• Local Product Availability: This year, 46% of retail sales will be influenced by online research – but more than 90% of total retail transactions will occur in-store (eMarketer, June 2010). Local Product Availability helps retailers bridge online and offline sales by showing shoppers when a product is also available in a store nearby – in-line with the search results.
  
• Enhanced Merchandising: Retailers need to be agile to effectively respond to shopping trends and market dynamics – for example ramping up certain underdog basketball team apparel going into the Final Four! Our new merchandising tools allow retailers to easily set query-based landing pages, and to create promotions that display alongside related search queries in retailer-designated banner areas.
  
• Product Recommendations (Labs): To help consumers discover related products, Product Recommendations show shoppers what other people viewed and ultimately bought.
  

With this release we're also welcoming three new retail partners: Forever21, General Nutrition Company (GNC) and L’Occitane. GNC implemented Google Commerce Search in less than a week on their mobile website, while Forever 21 and L’Occitane are currently working to implement various new features of GCS, such as Search as You Type and Local Product Availability. Here’s what Christine Burke, VP of International E-Commerce at cosmetics staple L’Occitane had to say about GCS 3.0:

“L’Occitane is unique in that our beauty products center around ingredients - such as lavender, shea butter and verbena. As our customers visit our re-designed website to shop and research our products, we are excited about the speed and accuracy of on-site search results that will be provided to us through Google Commerce Search. We are also very excited about the potential of the new local inventory feature, which can help us connect our customers with their favorite products in one of our 170 US boutiques.”

Learn how you can provide the latest in retail technology on your website with Google Commerce Search. Sign up for our upcoming webinar (details below). You’ll hear from Nitin Mangtani, Group Product Manager, in conversation with Google Commerce Search customers about how these new features are transforming retail for the better.

Google Commerce Search 3.0: Driving user engagement and cross-channel coordination in retail
Wednesday, May 5, 2011
2:00 p.m. EDT / 11:00 a.m. PDT



Posted by Richard Liu, Engineering Manager, Google Commerce Search

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