Google Launches Commerce Search for Online Stores
If you’re running an online shop, Google’s new Commerce Search may be worth having a look at. Google describes it as a “search solution designed specifically with online retail enterprises in mind.” Instead of a usual sign up button, you’re asked to contact Google’s sales team. Later on, you can then upload your product data at the Google Merchant Center, and go on to customise your site’s search engine. Google’s admin console lets you “manage product promotions, upload synonym dictionaries” and control search options. This service isn’t free though… you’ll be billed based on the amount of items in your data, as well as the number of searches performed every year.
GCS also has a bunch of user-friendly features that make shopping on online stores easier, and search results more refined and accurate. Some of those features are:
- Speed – GCS leverages Google’s ultra fast platform, because it’s hosted, providing sub-second response times to users.
- Google quality and ranking – GCS analyzes every item in the data feed using proprietary signals to determine its optimal placement in the result set, for more accurate query results for shoppers.
- Parametric search and sorting – GCS allows users to refine or sort results by category, price, brand, or other attribute; this is fully-functional parametric search for e-stores.
- Product boost and promotions – Retailers can boost the relevance of certain items, or highlight specific products during a sale, and cross-sell related products.
- Spell check, stemming and synonyms – By leveraging the larger Google search engine, GCS can include these advanced search and synonym options, so the shopping experience is smoother for customers – even customers who mistype.
- Fast deployment and scale – Since this is a cloud-based offering, GCS can be deployed in days and, because it’s hosted on the Google platform, retailers can scale to meet their higher-demand periods like the holidays without worrying about slowdowns or spikes.
