Where is ecommerce headed in Google's SERP's

[Whitey]

Here's some observations, that I find intriguing about Google's future moves around e-commerce listings.

1. Meta search threat to Google. In the recently leaked FTC report [webmasterworld.com...] Google is evidenced to be manipulating ecommerce areas , in particular those involving Yelp, TripAdvisor and Amazon.

Somewhere in the report, Google is quoted as saying that it considers meta search sites, a business threat. The report is now old, but nothing's changed. Presumably Google's concern is because it undermine's Google's ability to show what the customer really wants, since a user's real preference would not support advertising e.g. the lowest product price.

2. Google search results with white-list manipulation. What is not covered by default in the FTC probe, is the strong inference that Google manipulates results according to it's own quality guidelines, by invoking either editorially driven whitelists ahead of it's algorithm, aside from the issue of promoting it's own assets ahead of others in anti competitive behaviour.

3. Identical content in a mature market. Recently, I have seen a major e-commerce company, with blanket high SERP rankings, acquire some leading shopping portals which dominate their market segment. [ It's a result of a mature market and the commoditization that eventually occurs - many will have witnessed this ].

The content is now identical. At this stage all three brand names still dominate the SERP's. Will Google implement Panda on two of these sites, or will they be maintained? - time will tell.

4. The pack of 6-8 is really a bad user experience because a user does not want their choice limited to such a small number, say in a big city

5. Google has lost it's reputation as the go to place to compare deals. It may never have really had it, but I think the polarization around limited brand placements may have cemented it further.

In taking a balanced view of Google's needs as a business and equally a "go to place" for e-commerce users, is Google's place as a relevant search engine for large e-commerce plays timing out? Any thoughts out there on how Google will need to evolve and still be in control of e-commerce SERP listing's?

[fathom]

I don't see B2B going back to that in the foreseeable future.

Whether true or untrue the lineup are still there so ecommerce didn't hurt brick & mortar either just provided another choice.

[Whitey]

I don't see B2B going back to that in the foreseeable future.

United States retail giant Wal-Mart says its record investment in online leaves it "in better shape than anybody out there", following criticism it had allowed rivals to steal digital market share. The $US260 billion company wants to extend the ubiquity of its branch network in the US online, which accounts for just 3 per cent of sales.

"On the integration of physical and digital, we said for about 24 months, 18 to 24 months, we will be in a heavy investment mode," chief financial officer Charles Holley said late last week.

Wal-Mart's latest results show an 18 per cent rise in digital sales for the quarter, which it described as "solid but not quite as strong as we wanted".

Former Woolworths senior executive Greg Foran, who was recently appointed to run Wal-Mart, said it would focus on improving home shopping and in-store pick-up. In addition to its local site, Wal-Mart operates online in several Central and Latin American countries, Canada, China, Japan, Britain and South Africa. Global online sales rose 22 per cent in the year to January. [smh.com.au...] .

If fulfilment of orders is an issue, this might set a trend amongst competitors to blur the division between online/bricks and mortar.

[RP_Joe]

e-commerce is not going away. There are many advantages over bricks and mortar.
-Much larger selection
-Better value in pricing. Internet sales tax will be a factor, but I'm told in California they're going to double digit sales taxes. more states will do this.

The next wave of bankruptcies including RadioShack points out that there is very little future for most bricks and mortar stores. Even Walmart, with all their investment, is not showing sales growth in the last report I heard.
Note e-commerce is not dead, or dying or in trouble.

But Google is doing a poor job for most small e-commerce websites. However, people often don't just shop for a product. If I'm looking for a new computer monitor, I'm going to search on a particular model number. But once I arrive at e-commerce site, I'm likely to search within that site for the best value.
Also people build up a brand affinity for certain types of e-commerce. If I'm looking to buy a new monitor, I probably will not go to Google. I will go to Amazon and NewEgg. Then I may look at a retailer, to see if they have a model I have decided on and the price. That's the last option. Or I just may buy it one of those other two.

But if I'm looking for a dash cam for my car, that's a whole other story. I'm wide open to all possibilities. I'm far more likely to buy it from an e-commerce shop that specializes in dash cameras. I'm going to use a search engine to find those e-commerce specialty stores.
I really suspect that Google will be hurt by specialty search engines.
Travel search engines. Hotel search engines. Sports search engines.
But I don't see any e-commerce search engine appearing anytime soon.

[Whitey]

Interesting article I thought :

Google Makes Another Big Move Toward Dominating Hotel Search

The impact of Google’s 3-pack format is that it drives traffic to third-party sites through organic search but also to Google’s hotel ads from online travel agencies and hotels. Google likely is taking market share from metasearch players with the streamlined navigation from its search results pages to its hotel ads.

With Google’s 3-pack listings serving more these days as a quasi-metasearch site with pricing from Google’s hotel advertisers, it isn’t unreasonable to think that Google Hotel Finder as a separate site may eventually fade away. [skift.com...] .

NB: the sentence about European investigations around anti competitive behaviour.

What are the implications to users and business' for this and other key verticals in e-commerce metasearch e.g. restaurants ; finance ; etc, etc ... in the organic SERP's ?
.

[samwest]

Just from my personal experience, I think the future of e-commerce is in dire straits if it interferes with Google's ability to make a buck. As long as Google dominates and competes against us on every front, e-commerce is doomed. There appears to be very little "live and let live" in their aggressive approach.
It's just like the Wild West (or was) and it's still a big land grab that ain't over yet. I'd love to see a new open source, publicly developed search engine evolve to take back the task of SEARCH, not just another fat cat competitor. Google NEEDS to be broken up... or in the words of Mr. O' Leary, the internet is dead to me.

[Nutterum]

@samwest - no search engine can become global yet open sourced, perhaps the only authority that can achieve such a feat is a UN and even then its pushing it. Bias, editorial and censorship will always lurk in the shadows and sooner or later show their ugly face, depending on the entity controlling the flow of data. I personally prefer freedom of the internet with bias in its e-commerce part as opposed to editorial or censorship of the flow of information. I mean look at China, the semi-state run search operators filter huge amounts of information and data to keep 1/6 of the population on Earth behind closed doors...

[slipkid]

Last week, for the first time in my 25+ years working with computers, i bought computer equipment from brick and mortar and not online. This realization hit me as i was leaving the store with 2 boxes in hand that it was my first time.

Fascinating.

I did the same exact same thing about 3 months ago in the purchase of a laptop for my wife.

[EditorialGuy]

I did the same exact same thing about 3 months ago in the purchase of a laptop for my wife.

On the other hand, I've bought an SSD, a kitchen sink and faucet, antifreeze, and other items (large and small) online in the past month or so. Once I start buying big bags of dog food online for home delivery, I'll be able to get rid of my car. :-)

[glakes]

Cnet reported that Google will be adding "buy Now" buttons to their mobile search results: [cnet.com...]

In the news piece Cnet states that:

The feature will be added in the coming weeks, and will be applied only to some sponsored search results, which a company pays for. It will not be applied to "organic" search results, which are generated by Google's algorithms.

Also, Cnet reports:

For the Google service, the company will let users store credit card information, so they don't have to input it again for future purchases. But the company won't share payment details with retailers, according to the Journal.

Is this more arm twisting by Google to move online retailers into Adwords? Also the second quoted portion of text is vague. Does this mean Google is not only using their dominance to move online retailers into Adwords, but also nudging them to utilize Google Wallet as well?

It appears ecommerce is heading in a direction where organic visibility continues to shrink and control over the payment process is being lost.

[fathom]

Is this more arm twisting by Google to move online retailers into Adwords? Also the second quoted portion of text is vague. Does this mean Google is not only using their dominance to move online retailers into Adwords, but also nudging them to utilize Google Wallet as well?

It appears ecommerce is heading in a direction where organic visibility continues to shrink and control over the payment process is being lost.

Actually it seems to be a two fold effort to get more mobile buyers since they out number desktop user by a large margin to buy and to do that using Amazon's concept.

Not sure how adding a buy now button will get more adword users but surely more browsers to be clickers. If you are happy with freebies only Google is happy for you.

[jrs79]

The writing has been on the wall for a while. Google is looking to be a store like Amazon. Currently they are where all online advertising takes place, but they are moving towards being the place where the whole process happens by utilizing a buy now button and their own shipping service like Google Shopping Express.