skip to main content

2,634 shops listed | Last updated: Friday, March 29, 2024

Monitor Add a site

Google invests millions in e-commerce firm takeover bid

Monday, February 11, 2013 - 21:09 by Graham Miller

Share on

Search giant Google has taken a few more steps into the e-commerce market after its latest acquisition, which saw it splash out $125 million ((80 million) of its own cash, to snap up Channel Intelligence.

This business is targeted at making it easy for consumers to find products they want to buy online and has a number of established partnerships with major retailers, to help facilitate this process.

Google is, of course, geared towards letting people find anything and everything on the internet, which is why adding Channel Intelligence to its in-house e-commerce drive will be a shrewd move.

Mashable reports that a Google spokesperson explicitly said that by investing in Channel Intelligence, the search giant will be in a better position to enhance the experience of shopping online that is available to its users.

The spokesperson also said that retailers would be able to benefit from increased sales as a result of Google's growing adeptness when it comes to uniting a search user with the product that they want to purchase.

Google has been gradually reshuffling its e-commerce tools over the past few months, to make them more than just a sideshow.

It earns most of its money from ad revenue, so while the new acquisition will not mean that it is ready to open up its own store, it will give it a better opportunity to gain commission from marketers, who want to make their products as visible as possible.

Of course, there are some who argue that search engines are losing some of their impact on the e-commerce market as a result of social networks. Since consumers can share opinions on products and e-commerce links through Facebook and Twitter, the process of discovering deals is not purely down to a Google search.