Dive Brief:
- In an effort to make it easier to find the right price this holiday season, Google has released shopping search updates focused on identifying and utilizing the best deals across retailers, according to details shared with Retail Dive.
- New features include a more visible promotion badge on products, a coupon clipping feature to easily copy codes, a side-by-side price comparison tool for similar products and the ability to see if a retailer's price is higher, lower or typical for that product compared to others.
- Google’s new features — which will roll out in the coming weeks — come as shoppers are focused on low prices. A recent survey Google commissioned showed that 43% of Americans shopping this season plan to look for more deals and sales compared to last year.
Dive Insight:
Google knows inflation is tightening shoppers’ budgets this season and it wants to make sure those searching on the platform can get the best deals possible.
“The holiday season is upon us, and many are already getting into the (shopping) spirit,” Shashi Thakur, vice president and general manager of consumer shopping at Google, said in a statement. “Deals are particularly top of mind this year.”
The latest from Google adds to shopping updates it announced last month. That round of changes included a dual-screen search for users to look at product information without leaving the search results, as well as new dynamic filters to assist in narrowing down search results.
Some retailers are also updating their webpage and search functions ahead of the holidays as well. Walmart released new features to its website last week, which included a more visible green deal icon on products and a new virtual queuing option for highly sought-after items.
Recent reports on consumer behavior heading into this season show that price could be top of mind for shoppers. About two-thirds (65%) of respondents in an ICSC report from October said they will be spending significantly more time looking at promotions and deals this holiday season. An Oracle Retail report from last month additionally found that 71% of those surveyed would consider a store financing plan this year.
