MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.—Google is entering e-retail, announcing that it will begin to test a “buy" button that will appear on mobile advertisements.
The move is meant to make online purchasing easier by letting users buy products with just the click of a button using the payment information linked to their Google accounts.
While the approach has been used by other companies, experts believe Google may have a competitive advantage due to its search engine dominance.
“Google’s buy button, combined with its Android Pay feature, could drive shopping on mobile by reducing the number of hoops that people have to jump through in order to buy something on their phone,” reported Venture Beat. “Google’s new purchasing platform is also interesting because it comes at a time when a ton of major technology companies are investing in similar efforts. There’s PayPal, Apple Pay, and soon Samsung Pay.”
Google may be in the best position to take advantage of the growing online retail market, according to analysts who note Google’s search engine strength. Deloitte points out that digital devices will have influenced $2.2 trillion worth of US retail sales by the end of 2015.
Google hosts the shopping page, but consumers will still purchase the products directly from the companies themselves.