Google is gearing up to launch a ‘Shopping’ tab in India which will let users search for the items that they want to buy and then redirect them to online merchants selling the specific product. All of this will be processed directly through the search engine and Google is said to have been working on the technology for several months.
The Economic Times reported that Google will soon pilot the Shopping Tab feature before officially launching it before the end of 2018. The Mountain View giant is reported to be already in talks with Paytm, Flipkart and Snapdeal to take part in their new ’Shopping tab’ venture. A spokesperson for Google said, “We are always exploring options to help consumers find the products they want to buy more quickly and efficiently from local merchants”.
The Shopping tab will allow users to search for products on a platform right off Google search and a user will then be directed to the respective online retailer site to place an order. It’s likely that Google will soon let users complete this process through its own page but for now, Google isn’t determined to offer its own payment services for this mode of shopping.
Besides e-commerce sites, Google will also be looking into setting up a network of small and medium registered enterprises which could be anything from a local kirana store to a handicraft shop, thus helping users explore more products that are relevant to their search. Google is poised to offer the service for free at the moment which could eventually lead to the Google setting up a marketplace of its own through the service.
If that’s what happens, Google will be following in on the footsteps of Amazon which started off as a price-comparing website through jungle.com.