Shopping Blog

[Cross-posted on the Official Google Blog, Commerce and Mobile blogs]

For years, shoppers have enjoyed flipping through glossy print catalogs to be inspired, discover new trends and find great products. Today, mobile technologies can make catalog shopping more engaging, social and creative. With that in mind, we’ve created Google Catalogs—a free app for tablet devices that enables you to browse all of your favorite catalogs and interact with new layers of rich-media content.

The Google Catalogs app features digital versions of catalogs across many popular categories, including fashion and apparel, beauty, jewelry, home, kids and gifts. We’ve partnered with a variety of top brands including Anthropologie, Bare Escentuals, Bergdorf Goodman, Crate and Barrel, L.L. Bean, Lands’ End, Macy’s, Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, Pottery Barn, Saks Fifth Avenue, Sephora, Sundance, Tea Collection, Urban Outfitters and Williams-Sonoma, just to name a few.

With Google Catalogs, you can:

• Interact: Zoom in to see products up close, tap on tags to learn more about an item or, in some catalogs, view inspiring photo albums and videos.


• Find products in nearby stores: When an item catches your eye, instantly find it in a store near you or tap “Buy on Website” to visit the merchant online.


• Express your creativity: Create a collage of your favorite catalog pages and products. If you need inspiration, you can check out collages created by others.


• Share with friends: Email a product or collage to all your shopping buddies.


• Get instant access to new catalogs: Add catalogs to your Favorites and get notified each time a new issue arrives.


• Discover new products and brands: Search for products within or across multiple catalogs to find exactly what you’re looking for.

To download the app on your iPad, visit the App Store. Visit www.google.com/catalogs/about/ to learn more, and stay tuned for Google Catalogs for Android tablets, coming soon! If you’re a merchant and would like to participate in Google Catalogs, tell us about your catalog by filling out this form on our website.

Happy shopping!

Posted by Kinnari Jhaveri, Strategic Partner Development Manager, Google Commerce Team

Even in an age of jet travel and cloud computing, real clouds and jet streams--in other words, weather and climate--remain major factors driving economic dynamics at every level. For many retailers especially the vicissitudes of climate can massively impact their businesses, the way they relate to their consumers, and the pace of their development.

From a lemonade stand set up by neighborhood kids to fully-booked schedules for air conditioning installation teams to outdoor events canceled because of high temperatures, summer in most places of the US brings with it a host of constitutive economic dynamics. With triple digit temperatures and excessive heat warnings hitting the US hard from Idaho to Texas, Nevada to Maryland this week and last, some of these seasonal dynamics have become especially pronounced, while still other challenges arise for individuals, communities, businesses, and governments. This post addresses how the heat wave may be impacting retailers in particular and how they might respond effectively and efficiently.

Some of the current events, blog, and image content for “Heat Wave”--a trending topic across the US from July 19, 2011. Source: Google News.

Some relatively obvious retail areas have been and will be significantly impacted. For example, merchants who sell portable air conditioners nationwide or local HVAC repair companies have probably seen major uplift in purchases and requests for service. This month has hit the highest levels of searches for “air conditioning” on Google in over half a decade.

Indexed query volumes for “air conditioning” from January 2004 to present. Source: Google Insights for Search.

Meanwhile, the indexed volume of searches on Google in the US for “water parks” and “ice cream”--which consistently demonstrate peak seasonality in the dog days of summer--have already attained record highs in terms of indexed search volumes this month.

What are a few suggestions or best practices for retailers to consider as this heat continues to unfold? If you are a retailer who provides goods or services that address heat relief, craft ad text and creatives to speak directly to current events. For local outlets seen as places to escape the heat socially --cafes, movie theaters, water parks-- highlight this capacity, especially in any mobile-specific campaigns you have. For display and search initiatives, add a few flighted ad groups or campaigns with heat relief-specific language.

Of course, heat relief goes well beyond water slides. Take some time to consider how the services and goods you provide can or do provide heat relief--and be sure to communicate this in any locally-targeted campaigns or ad creatives. Think about your site’s visitors or shop’s customers. How is the heat impacting their behavior? If you have social media channels, reach out to users and initiate conversations. If you have a brick-and-mortar presence, be sure it is a welcoming place from the heat. Heat--and relief from it--will be a top of mind priority for everyone affected by the heat.

Perhaps you are a laundromat in Chicago right now that has AC. In this midst of a heat wave this usually unremarkable fact might suddenly cause you to stand out--and it might be worth mentioning in locally-targeted ads. If you are crafting a campaign driving awareness around an outdoor concert series in Nashville, it may make sense to explicitly highlight the free, cold bottled water you will be offering. Additionally, some consumers may purchase items from home, rather than brave the heat. With very different temperature extremes, Snowmaggedon 2011 drove a similar dynamic in the retail sector. This could be selling point for those competing from a pure player space against brick-and-mortar establishments.

Looking beyond this current heat wave, and as national consciousness rises around climate change and attendant weather patterns, more and more consumers are seeking to stay cool, while saving money and carbon. For retailers that source their energy from renewable sources, now could be a key time to start highlighting this difference. For those that don’t, now could be an ideal moment to begin considering investment in these sources for the future. The impact of heat waves may remain long after the weather itself has turned cool again. One particular complex of economic factors illustrates this fact powerfully. The current heat wave has significantly damaged US corn, soybean, and wheat crops, driving up these commodities’ prices. It appears that these increases are already impacting livestock prices. This could, in turn, impact a range of retailers involved in food service through the rest of the year. Such a scenario serves as an object lesson: As retailers prepare longer-range plans, they should consider the possible chain of impacts that ripple out from a major heat wave--or any significant climate event.


Posted by Paul G. Nauert, The Google Retail Team

Advertisers often wonder whether search ads cannibalize their organic traffic. If search ads were paused, would clicks on organic results increase, and make up for the loss in paid traffic? Google statisticians recently ran over 400 studies on paused accounts to answer this question.

In what we call “Search Ads Pause Studies”, our group of researchers observed organic click volume in the absence of search ads. Then they built a statistical model to predict click volume for given levels of ad spend. This model generates estimates for the incremental clicks attributable to search ads (IAC), or in other words, the percentage of paid clicks that are not made up for by organic clicks when search ads are paused.

On average, the incremental ad clicks percentage across verticals is 89%. This means that a full 89% of the traffic generated by search ads is not replaced by organic clicks when ads are paused. This number was consistently high across verticals:


You can find a video on the study here. The full study can be found on research.google.com.


Posted by Lizzy Van Alstine and David Chan, The Google Quant Management Team

Google’s invite-only retail summit, Think Retail: The Future is Now, was held on July 12 in Mountain View, CA. The event reached over 950 marketing leaders and agency executives. Think Retail explored the ever-evolving marketplace, how to most effectively leverage digital assets, and how to best connect with today’s consumers.

I attended the session and it was a jam-packed day of valuable information, trends, and great examples. It sparked ideas for many marketers on “how can I integrate mobile into my back-to-school programs,” “how can I apply multi-channel online attribution to my business,” and “how the social landscape is changing with Google+.”

The event provided a new perspective on the increasingly digital consumer shopping experience and offered new ideas and opportunities for marketers to make more meaningful consumer connections and increase online and offline sales. Key highlights included:

• Matt Nemer from Wells Fargo’s insights into why “We are on the brink of another acceleration in eCommerce”

• Andy Mantis from MasterCard’s analysis of consumer spending trends and predictions for the holidays

• Product experts from Google sharing trends in local, mobile and video, and how retailers can incorporate these strategies into their marketing mix

• Avinash Kaushik's sharing of best practices for multi-channel online attribution

• Google’s Social team's peek into the Google+ project - real-life sharing , rethought for the web. The team gave a demo on how to use circles, huddles, sparks and more. They also shared how clients using Google Analytics can gain insight into social engagement on their website (see below)

The Think Retail website has been updated with presentations and videos from the event. You can access the content here. Enjoy!


Posted by Atoshi Shorey, The Google Technology Market Team

(Cross-posted on the Google Mobile Blog and Google Commerce Blog)


We’ve recently made a few new changes to Google Shopper for iPhone that makes it easy to find nearby deals when you’re on-the-go.

In the latest version of Google Shopper, in addition to the ‘Shop’ tab, you’ll now see two new tabs at the bottom of the app: Offers and My Offers. The Offers tab displays a list, or map view, of nearby offers which businesses have submitted through Google Places - from restaurant and movie theater deals to discounts on tennis lessons or a round of golf.

Let's say you come across an offer for free dessert at a nearby restaurant, but you won't have time to use it until the weekend. You can save the offer for future use, then later view and redeem it from the My Offers tab.

Additionally, if Google Offers are available in your city, you’ll be able to view and redeem your purchased offers on the My Offers tab. Google Offers are currently available in Portland, Oregon, the San Francisco Bay Area and New York, with other cities to follow.




Google Shopper 1.5 is currently available for iPhone users in the US and UK with iOS 4.0 and higher. If you’re a current Google Shopper user, you’ll automatically receive an update. Download Google Shopper 1.5 by visiting the App Store. To download Google Shopper for Android, visit Android Market.

Posted by Richard Hung, Product Manager, Google Shopper Team

I recently was in the market for the infamous ‘little black dress.’ My first stop was Google - just like millions of other shoppers. After clicking through to one of my favorite dress retailers and browsing the options, I decided to stop by their store on the way home from work. I needed the dress for an event that weekend and also wasn’t sure on size, so ordering online really wasn’t an option.

There are lots of reasons shoppers research purchases online and then buy at a brick and mortar. What’s important for retailers to recognize, however, is that having an online presence is becoming more and more important to overall sales.

According to an Ipsos study, 93% of sales occur offline. However, 80% of consumers research a product online before purchasing in-store. This illustrates the value consumers place on the Internet as a trusted research resource for their purchases.

As consumers increasingly shop across multiple channels, retailers must shift their thinking around ROI to properly account for how and where consumers shop.

Google’s online to store experiments can help retailers better understand the impact their online marketing dollars are having on in-store sales. We use a test vs. control methodology to measure this impact.

The basics include looking at similar DMAs and increasing online advertising in the test markets, while maintaining or eliminating online advertising in the control markets.





In preliminary studies, advertisers are getting more insight into their in-store ROAS, as well as in-store sales uplift. Having this information can help you better align your attribution models - which can help you make more informed decisions when determining where marketing dollars should be spent to drive optimal sales.

If you have brick and mortar locations and are interested in learning more about the impact your AdWords advertising is having on in-store sales, please reach out to your Google account team regarding online-to-store testing.


Posted by Rachel Perrone, The Google Retail Team

Contextual. Audience. Remarketing. Demographic. Marketers have many options when it comes to targeting their display campaigns. The emergence of these powerful technologies has transformed display into a powerful direct response medium, delivering measurable performance at scale for marketers. But with the plethora of options to choose from, where do advertisers and agencies begin?

Please join Google for an upcoming webinar to learn more about how to approach targeting strategy for your campaigns on the Google Display Network. Specifically we’ll cover:

• The “targeting toolbox” for direct response campaigns
• Strategies for prioritizing and applying the available targeting options to maximize campaign performance and efficiency
• Tools, tips and best practices for maximizing ROI for your campaigns

Register here for the webinar to be held on August 4, 2011 at 11:00am PST / 1:00pm CST / 2:00pm EST.