Google Commerce Search 3.0: You won’t believe it’s online shopping

When we first introduced Google Commerce Search—our search solution for e-commerce websites—our focus was on improving search quality and speed to help online shoppers find what they’re looking for. Retailers such as Woodcraft Supply, BabyAge.com and HealthWarehouse.com implemented Google Commerce Search on their respective websites; Woodcraft increased search revenues 34 percent, BabyAge increased site searches 64 percent and HealthWarehouse saw online conversions increase 19 percent—and all have reported an increase in customer satisfaction.

Today we’re building on the capabilities that have proved useful to our retail partners with the third-generation Google Commerce Search (GCS). With this new version, we hope to help create an even more interactive and engaging experience for shoppers and retailers.



Here are some of the cool new features in GCS 3.0:

• Search as You Type provides instant gratification to shoppers, returning product results with every keystroke, right from the search bar
• Local Product Availability helps retailers bridge online and offline sales by showing shoppers when a product is also available in a store nearby—in-line with the search results
• Enhanced Merchandising tools allow retailers to create product promotions that display in banners alongside related search queries, and to easily set query-based landing pages (for example, when a visitor types [shoes], they’re directed to a “shoe” page)
• Product Recommendations (Labs) helps shoppers make purchase decisions by showing them what others viewed and ultimately bought

Search As You Type on www.babyage.com

With this release we're also welcoming three new retail partners: Forever21, General Nutrition Company (GNC) and L’Occitane. GNC implemented Google Commerce Search in less than a week on their mobile website, while Forever 21 and L’Occitane are currently working to implement various new features of GCS, such as Search as You Type and Local Product Availability. Here’s what Christine Burke, VP of International E-Commerce at cosmetics staple L’Occitane had to say about GCS 3.0:

L’Occitane is unique in that our beauty products center around ingredients—such as lavender, shea butter and verbena. As our customers visit our re-designed website to shop and research our products, we’re excited about the speed and accuracy of on-site search results that will be provided to us through Google Commerce Search. We’re also very excited about the possibility of the new local inventory feature, which can help us connect our customers with their favorite products in one of our 170 U.S. boutiques.

For more information, visit google.com/commercesearch.

Posted by Tianyu Wen, Software Engineer, Google Commerce Search