{"id":2795,"date":"2018-08-14T11:57:37","date_gmt":"2018-08-14T11:57:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/reformingretail.com\/?p=2795"},"modified":"2019-01-23T09:35:21","modified_gmt":"2019-01-23T15:35:21","slug":"google-shows-whats-possible-if-you-choose-a-good-pos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reformingretail.com\/index.php\/2018\/08\/14\/google-shows-whats-possible-if-you-choose-a-good-pos\/","title":{"rendered":"Google Shows What’s Possible If You Choose A Good POS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brick and mortar is still important. No matter how much news outlets (including this one) fawn over Amazon and the like, brick and mortar commerce still represents 90% of retail spend<\/a>. Which is why the tech giant are so interested in gaining access to their data.<\/p>\n

To this effect Google has announced<\/a> some major changes to Google Shopping that we predicted years ago<\/a> (and Google probably predicted years before us… until they confronted the intellectual reality of brick and mortar merchants). These updates, while seemingly good for merchants, might be a double-edged sword.<\/p>\n

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First onto the good news. Many merchants struggle to profitably understand ecommerce. And consumers more frequently demand goods instantly, hence the rapid rise in last-mile delivery services over the past decade. Google, to their credit, is integrating into a merchant’s POS data to pull inventory and item information so that it can be made available on Google Shopping<\/a>. Now someone looking for the “red Polo sweater” we mentioned in our article a few years ago can see exactly where the item is and at what price should they want it immediately.<\/p>\n

Currently the catalogue of local listings is coming through POS partnerships (hint, hint<\/a>). Google Shopping’s head of product had this to say:<\/p>\n

Some 80 percent of shoppers will visit a store if they know they will find there what they are looking for, so in theory providing that inventory list could increase that strike rate for businesses – or at the very least reduce frustration people may have when they do go to the store and find the product not there.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This move gives merchants a better ecommerce engine and requires no work on their part (that’s why it’s been successful thus far if we’re to be honest). It also allows merchants to better use AdWords to drive lift in their businesses.<\/p>\n

The downside? Google is now gaining more access to offline sales data. This means your AdWords could become more expensive as Google learns what’s trending. We’re not entirely sure of the depth of ecommerce relationships on Google Shopping but it’s possible Google uses your sales data to work with larger players and promote competitive items that are more commercially beneficial to Google. Amazon “allegedly” did something similar<\/a> by watching its third party sales data to determine what products in should build in-house.<\/p>\n

Overall verdict?<\/p>\n

Google is just scratching the surface here but clearly they’re demonstrating what’s possible when merchants choose a POS provider with open APIs<\/a> and a partnership mindset<\/a>. There’s no reason merchants couldn’t have been benefitting from these opportunities since Google Shopping’s launch in 2002<\/a> except that POS providers have had their heads in the sand.<\/p>\n

We don’t expect merchants to ever understand what’s possible with their own data but as the POS provider it’s your job to do this innovation for them. Hopefully with an open API, and hopefully through partnerships. Or are you going to build Google, too?<\/p>\n