Google Shopping Actions: the search engine cart

It is months (years?) since Google has seen transactional searches of the type: "where to buy X?" or "shops of X?" growing. The trend occurs in all devices, both on desktop and mobile phones. 

In these, we are talking about an increase of 85 per cent, especially among those who use the wizard's voice to perform their searches (according to Google blog) 

If we put both things together, we find that Amazon not only begins to be a threat to Google in those most interesting keywords: those involving sale. If users start their search within this platform, what happens with their famous Adwords? Do they lose their value? Of course they do. 

Join this to the obsession Google has with searches by voice, and the problem that is beginning to represent the expansion of Echo devices that incorporate Alexa as assistant. The user can buy using nothing but than his voice interface and that is a growth outside of the control of the search engine as we understand it. 

The answer to this goes through engaging with the e Commerce, give them a chance to sell directly from the searcher, the own voice assistant integrated in mobile devices and their intelligent speakers as well as other existing services, for example Google Express. 

Exactly this is what Google Shopping Actions allows us to make: upload our product catalogues as we would do to sell on any marketplace. 

Important: we must not confuse Google Shopping with Shopping Actions. The first simply allows us, through advertising campaigns manager, Adwords and Google Merchant, to create small ads that lead us to a product page. Actions run completely apart, it does not send us traffic, everything happens within the search engine and its associated services. 

In the end Shopping Actions is not SEO or SEM: it is something completely different. We can say that it is about starting in eCommerce. 

The star feature of this service is a universal shopping cart. By this, we mean that all purchases are centralized in a single process within Google checkout. 

The idea is that you can do your shopping list without the need of sitting at a computer or phone, making the cart always go with you. We can add products in this way: 

The "magic" of the matter is that this process can be done by combining all these interfaces or options, but can also perform independent actions or focus on only one of these channels. No matter how you do it, all products will go into a single shopping cart that is going to be completed within Google. 

Articles appear in response to customer queries, they do not require to enter different independent platforms previously, do the search and buy there. Everything is in the search box. 

Obviously the universal cart and the possibility of integrating transversally on different devices is, by itself, a great advantage, but there are more things you should know. 

Google bets, in a determined manner, on the “screenless” experience. Listing your products within Actions is a good way to go taking positions within voice Commerce. More and more customers use voice to buy their products, this occurs with Alexa, Siri and Google that are present in devices such as Echo, HomePod and Google Home respectively. Here, the options are so limited that of 10 organic results, plus other three sponsored by Adwords, Shopping, maps cards... we move to one chance: "Google buys sliced bread" and ready, there is no further interaction or comparison. 

CPA selling model, or what is the same, you only pay a Commission on the product in the event that the sale takes place. We are not talking about payments per click or per impression. This model of success selling makes it quite attractive from my point of view. 

Use of artificial intelligence in product recommendations. We move to a new scenario in which the machine learning and behavioral marketing come to the fore. Such strategies are closely integrated within the algorithms of the search engine. Therefore, those suggestions made will be much more relevant and not just for the keywords, also to complete the experience of the user according to who he is, his tastes, interests, previous purchases...