Why Google's Retail Push Is A Sign Of The Times

Why Google's Retail Push Is A Sign Of The Times

Google rolled out six Winter Wonderlab holiday pop-up stores.

Google is spreading its retail wings in all kinds of directions.

In its latest retail play, the search engine of record has just opened Google Winter Wonderlab holiday pop-up stores.

The six stores in New York City, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles, New Jersey and Sacramento feature Google-branded consumer electronics including Nexus 7 tablets, Chromebook computers and Chromecast streaming media players.

They're heavy on experiential retailing.

"Take a break from the mall madness and listen to music, watch videos, play games, or browse the web," the Google Winter Wonderlab site says.

At the stores, shoppers can step into a giant snow globe complete with fluttering white flakes and create slow-motion videos of themselves cavorting in the space that they can take home as a souvenir.

Meanwhile, Google is jockeying to help other retailers sell merchandise in their brick-and-mortar locations as opposed to just online.

Last month, Google Shopping rolled out features to help consumers on the hunt for a local store by offering product listing ads (PLAs) and storefronts for local stores.

That means when a consumer searches Google for an item, an ad with a photo will pop up for a local retailer. When the shopper clicks on the ad, the address of the local store carrying the item appears.

Indeed, a Google search for "Ugg boots" turned up the Nordstrom Rack on Union Square, a store it correctly recognized as near my location.

"Traditionally, PLA's have focused on e-commerce sites as the place to buy," Paul Bankhead, Google Shopping senior product manager, told Women's Wear Daily. "Local PLAs give the consumer a choice to explore local brick and mortar retailers as well."

The moves follow the search engine's April pilot launch of Google Shopping Express, which offers same-day delivery to shoppers directly from retailers such as Target, Walgreens, Toys "R" Us, among others.

"Google has a lot of competition from varying different angles," Ken Wisnefski, founder and CEO of Webimax, which develops online marketing strategies for retailers, told Forbes. "They are promoting and using their huge brand recognition to make a smart investment in retail efforts."

The search engine is likely looking to expand into retail to uncork a fresh revenue channel, particularly as its "number-one driver of revenue is paid-search placement, and that its market share is decreasing as mobile use has evolved the search landscape, which could end up hurting Google's ad revenue."

news by November 22, 2013 at 11:20PM