Google last week launched its new Shopping Graph - the real-time dataset that connects shoppers with billions of product listings from merchants all across the internet. They also announced an expanded Shopify integration and several other features designed to facilitate e-commerce for users.
Built using the same principle as Google's Knowledge Graph, Shopping Graph brings together information from websites, prices, reviews, videos and retailer product data, and calculates how those attributes relate to one another.
The Shopping Graph is a dynamic, AI-enhanced model that understands a constantly changing set of products, sellers, brands, reviews and most importantly, the product information and inventory data we receive from brands and retailers directly.
With people shopping across Google more than a billion times a day, the Shopping Graph makes those sessions more helpful by connecting people with over 24 billion listings from millions of merchants across the web. It works in real-time so people can discover and shop for products that are available right now.
Another notable Google Shopping announcement is the ability for Google Lens to detect searchable items in screenshots saved to Google Photos. When you view any screenshot in Google Photos, there will be a suggestion to search the photo with Lens, allowing you to see search results that can help you find that pair of shoes or wallpaper pattern that caught your eye.
Google is also working to tackle cart abandonment with a new Chrome tool that bundles together open carts across a number of merchants in a separate tab in an effort to encourage people to make a purchase.
It would seem Googles' primary focus is on creating the best possible shopping experience for the consumer, whilst ensuring that more people stay within their platform as opposed to finishing their purchasing elsewhere. It’s also in further response to breaking some of Amazon’s dominance.
The emphasis on pulling in retailer product data puts real priority on having a up to date, real time and detailed product feed, to ensure that when consumers are searching a brands products, their products are more likely to be featured.
It also puts added importance on making sure product descriptions and titles are accurate and relevant, managing your reviews and creating engaging product content on You Tube.