Google launches shopping search experience in India

Simplifying search experience for consumers further, Google has unveiled a new shopping search experience for the Indian users that would allow them to filter through offers, review prices from multiple merchants and find the products they are looking for. The shopping search experience will be accessible through multiple products. The first being 'made-to-browse' experience on the shopping homepage, second being the shopping tab on Google Search and the last being style search in Google Lens.

• To be available via shopping homepage, shopping tab in Google search and style search in Google Lens
• Expands Merchant Centre to Hindi

Talking about the launch of the new experience, Surojit Chatterjee, Vice President - Product Management, Google said, "More than 40 million Indians are coming online every year, and search is an integral part of their online journey. From seasoned desktop shoppers to first-time users with entry-level smartphones, we hope this new shopping experience will make finding what people are looking for just a little bit easier."

Shopping Homepage: Google explains that the new 'Shopping Homepage' is a made-to-browse destination for shoppers to search across multiple product categories, and browse products from thousands of retailers. It includes smart features such as price drops and a collection of the most popular products on Google. Bringing the experience to entry-level phones, too, the similar experience will also be available as a Progressive Web App (PWA).

Shopping Tab: A new addition to the quick search option on Google is the shopping tab. It will allow users to post queries in Hindi and English and show product lists, local store inventory and review prices from across multiple retailers.

Style Search in Google Lens: Google has introduced an all-new visual approach to finding products such as clothes, furniture, and home decor. This can be done by simply pointing the Lens app.

Merchant Centre: Merchant is used by retailers to upload store and product data for shopping ads for retailers. So far, the Merchant Centre has been only available in English, but now it supports the Hindi language too. Retailers will also be able to use Merchant Centre to upload product details so they can appear across Google, without paying for ad campaigns.

According to the Sixth Economic Census, there are 58 million SMBs in India of which 35 per cent are engaged in retail trade. However, a very small number of them have an online presence -- clearly highlighting a huge opportunity for retailers to surface their merchandise to the millions of online consumers.

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