Google nudges Amazon with universal shopping cart
Google is taking aim at e-commerce giant Amazon with an online program known as Shopping Actions that allows customers to shop from an array of retailers including Target, 1-800-Flowers, Home Depot, Costco and Ulta Beauty with a universal cart.
Shoppers can carry out the transactions through Google Assistant or Google Search whether they are using a mobile, desktop or Google Home device.
Google didn’t return a request from FOX Business for comment at the time of publication on how much it earns for each transaction.
The service allows a shopper to do a search on Google for a product such as moisturizing hand soap and see a sponsored listing from Target and add it to the shopping cart. Later, the shopper can reorder aluminum foil through voice and then purchase both items through Google’s checkout.
Target was one of the first retailers to test the Google service and last year expanded the offering nationwide.
“Since the orders are shipped from a nearby Target store, they’ll have their items delivered to their home in just two days,” Mike McNamara, Target’s chief information and digital officer, said in Google’s Inside Adwords blog.
Floral and gift retailer 1-800-Flowers.com sees the Google service as another way of delivering immediate, personalized customer service.
“Our job is not to tell customers they have to call us or visit us in a certain way, but to actually be where the customers have chosen to be,” Amit Shah, chief marketing officer of 1-800-Flowers.com, said in the Google blog.
