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Amazon vs Google Ecommerce Dominance:
Before we deep dive into this trending topic on E-commerce battle between Google and Amazon, let’s face some facts.
Google has been increasingly losing e-commerce customers and revenue to Amazon which can be seen from the below graphs.
Amazon's market share of US digital advertising is slowly but steadily increasing from 2016 onwards as seen from the above graph by business insider. The duopoly of Google and Meta is breaking apart slowly and the biggest loser among them is Google.
And it is not just market share but also revenue. From the above Statista graph, comparing the ad revenue for all types of ads and respective platforms, it is clear that Amazon is gaining momentum in e-commerce market revenue. Amazon is repositioning itself as the leading mediator platform for sales of goods and services. In the battle for last-mile delivery which is the most crucial aspect of ecommerce, both user data and their preferences are shifting to the core of successful ecommerce business models.
It is not a secret that Google considers Amazon as its prime rival. And so let the Hunger Games begin. I mean the competition between Amazon and Google.
But Google is not silently crying in a corner of the room. It has introduced some new features for ecommerce that offer value, variety and user convenience to attract both sellers and shoppers.
- Enhanced Google Shopping Experience
- Display Space for Shopping Ads
Both features were unveiled at Google Marketing Live and are expected to increase value to their sellers, shoppers and advertisers.
Before we explore these new seemingly exciting features, let’s look at Amazon’s core competencies for ecommerce.
Strengths of Amazon:
Preferred E-commerce destination for online shoppers: Google’s own data suggest that they are losing customers who now prefer to search for products on Amazon directly instead of Google. This trend is becoming more and more in favor of Amazon and is not something new.
Huge Valuable Data: Currently Amazon has huge data on online shoppers including their interests, preferences, and behavior which Amazon itself targets to sell new products based on data. It has not shown any interest in sharing/selling this data to anyone as per our knowledge.
Strategic Ecommerce Model: Amazon's e-commerce model includes pricing based on customer profiles, preferences, delivery preferences, delivery costs, last mile, taxes and fees (national, regional, and international taxes including customs fees), and payment options (cash, credit cards, UPI and own monetary services).
Still, Why Consider E-commerce Giant Amazon:
If you are wondering why should I consider Amazon or how impactful it will be, then let’s look at 4 statistics.
- When purchasing online, 49% of Americans begin their search on Amazon, whereas 22% begin with Google. (Civic Science, 2019).
- When it comes to reading reviews, 79% of US shoppers turn to Amazon. On the other side, 32% trust search engines such as Google, 25% rely on merchant websites, 11% use alternative marketplaces, and 7% use social media outlets. (Feedvisor, 2019).
- Interestingly, pricing (62%) is the most important motivator for customers to choose an Amazon brand. Quality (23%) ranks second, followed by reviews (12%) and delivery (1%). (Feedvisor, 2019).
- Furthermore, 74% of buyers turn to Amazon when they are ready to purchase a product. In contrast, 10% of customers use search engines, 5% visit brand websites, 4% visit shop websites, and 1% use social media. (Feedvisor, 2019).
What we learned?
Amazon is the first choice for consumers to start their product search, read genuine reviews, and compare prices of different products. This alone signifies the trust e-commerce shoppers have in Amazon. And the last statistic is most important for e-commerce sellers.
1. Enhanced Google Shopping Experience
As we have learned that e-commerce giant Amazon is the go-to search site for many online shoppers, one may wonder how Google is responding to it. The answer is by enhancing the shopping experience.
As an online shopper, what do you consider before making a product purchase?
Product: Who is offering the product I need?
Features: Which product has all the features I need?
Reviews: What is the quality and long-term value? Any demerits?
Price: How much should I spend? Is there any discount?
Service: Is there any warranty or money back? Service center available near me?
Some questions may take priority over others for you, nonetheless, all these factors affect your E-commerce search and decision.
Wouldn’t it be nice to get all this information in a single place? Now Amazon over the years has included all the information you may need in the product page. Google has also considered this important point and has implemented 3 features.
1-New Shopping Experience
Personalized Homepage: Google shoppers will have a personalized homepage on their shopping tab. It will have features like filtering product types and features, reviews of products, and even videos. Now shoppers will get more personalized recommendations which generally boost e-commerce sales.
New Option: Shoppers will have the option to purchase online, in a nearby store, and now directly on Google.
New Cart Icon and Google Guarantee: Also a blue shopping cart icon is added with a Google-backed guarantee for simple returns and customer support. Isn’t it exciting and more trustworthy? Google will take care of late deliveries, wrong products, and even refunds.
E-commerce sellers will have their products displayed on Google.com, the shopping tab, and also Google Assistant. Google has said the space for display will expand to other places like YouTube and images.
How to take advantage as a seller:
You'll need to join Google's Shopping Actions program which is available to merchants in the United States and France currently, to sell across Google's domains.
Requirements: To participate in the Shopping Actions program in the United States, you must be a Shopping advertiser with established fulfillment, refund, and customer support procedures.
2. Display Space for Shopping Ads
1-Showcase Shopping Ads
A new feature called Showcase shopping ads is being brought by Google which it claims is a highly visual ad format. It will be displayed in more places such as images and discover feeds. Google claims that 80% of traffic from Showcase shopping ads to various seller sites are from new visitors who are exploring brands.
2-Pick-up-In-store Feature
Google is enhancing its local inventory ads making it easier for sellers to offer both buy-online and pick- up- in-store service through your Shopping ads. E-commerce sellers need a product landing page on their website that shows when pick-up in- store is available, and a local inventory feed in Google Merchant Center, to show which items they have in stock. Additionally, they can mention which items they can quickly ship to the store for in-store pickup.
3-Shopping Campaigns with Partners
Shopping campaigns with partners allow brands to use their own budgets to promote their priority products in retailers’ Shopping campaigns.
Most ecommerce businesses now use Smart Shopping campaigns for the majority of their Shopping ad investment in the last year as per Google.
How to take advantage as a seller:
You'll need to launch Google's Shopping Advertisement campaign to take advantage of these new exciting features.
If you need help running a profitable Google shopping ad and leveraging these new features, you can use our PPC management services to set up and run your shopping ad campaigns. We can also help you meet the below requirements.
Requirements: Sellers only need a product feed (Google Merchant Center), a remarketing list, and conversion monitoring to begin their first campaign. They can also use an e-commerce platform integration, such as Shopify, or Magento to launch a campaign.
Google’s Ecommerce Benefits Against Amazon:
Normally customers do not buy first time, I mean on first impression of the product. Customers interact with their favorite e-commerce brands across a variety of devices and platforms.
The e-commerce shoppers may be at different stages of their customer journey (awareness, interest, purchase, etc.), but each of these interactions is actually a chance for sellers to either close a deal or redirect them to the final touchpoint.
The new Google Shopping experience allows sellers to convert those chances into revenue. Here the downside of Amazon is that the shoppers can only interact within the Amazon app or website.
Key Takeaways:
Google is trying to introduce more brands and sellers to e-commerce shoppers through its vast network and services such as
- Personalized Homepage
- Images
- Shopping Tab
- Youtube
- Discover
Google is targeting both the TOFU stage of marketing through Discover, YouTube Images and the BOFU stage of marketing through a personalized homepage and shopping tab. On top of that it is providing its guarantee for more conversions and sales for BOFU.
Who will win this E-commerce Battle: Amazon or Google
You want a straight answer: No one knows.
Amazon has two core competencies: a large database of user-profiles and a strong commercial intent for shoppers.
Though currently Google Shopping has a smaller user base, there is no shortage of popularity of Google’s other networks and services. With the newly introduced features presented at Google Marketing Live, Google is providing e-commerce sellers and advertisers more opportunities for TOFU and BOFU.
If you want to take advantage of new Shopping ads features, our Award-Winning Digital Marketing Agency Aarav Infotech is here to help you with not only setting up your campaigns but also running and optimizing your campaigns to boost ROI.
