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Google mobile buy button move is all about helping consumers, retailers

Search giant Google not only wants its users to find what they need but buy what they need without leaving its website.

July 22, 2015

Search giant Google not only wants its users to find what they need but buy what they need without leaving its website.

The new retail ‘buy’ button functionality announced Wednesday is called “Purchases on Google,” and it lets mobile shoppers buy products touted in mobile search ads, according to a Reuters report.

Shoppers have to have a Google Account for the mobile transaction. The ‘buy’ service is currently in testing with a few retailers, according to the report.

The news comes on the heels of social network giant Facebook deploying its own ‘buy’ button feature and months after Twitter deployed a ‘buy’ feature tapping Amazon initially. It illustrates the increasing number of shoppers going mobile in retail excursions and how much of that retail experience is now happening via a smartphone or a tablet device.

In quite a lengthy blog post on the service Google said the move is all about "helping retailers reach shoppers in those crucial I-want-to-know, I want-to-go, and I want-to-buy moments," and improving the mobile experience on Google to aid shoppers as they browse, compare, and research products.”

It’s initially to be deployed on Google Chrome for Android this month with iOS support arriving down the road. Consumers won’t have to ‘buy’ through Google on everything as it is partnering with some direct-sales retail partners including eBay, Flipkart and Zalando.

The buy button is just one service being deployed on the retail side. Google is beefing up its search capability to pull up shopping ads that have been ranked high with users, which it said it’s already seeing increased in terms of click through rate.

"1 in 4 people who avoid stores say they do so because they don’t want to waste their time finding out that the thing they want isn’t in stock. So we’re doing more to serve people who clearly want to focus on products that are available within driving distance,” noted the Google blog.

What if you could give shoppers the right information at the right time – without them even needing to ask? Google Now does just that by bringing people the information they need at the moment they need it. We’ve recently released two new cards for shoppers," stated the blog post, noting that U.S. retailer conversion rates on desktops are twice as high than on mobile. It's hoping to change that ration with solutions to help retailers increase mobile engagement and sales.

"This is a tremendous new opportunity for retailers and app developers to drive engagement with their shopping apps, and we’ll be expanding it to more advertisers in the coming months," said Google in its blog.