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Buy on Google is now open and commission-free
- BiteCode_dev 6y agoFree until they dominate the entire market
- antonzabirko 6y agoI'm just glad there's someone to temper Amazon from world dominance... For now.
- AlexandrB 6y agoUnfortunately it's like Alien vs Predator. Whoever wins, we lose.
- nurettin 6y agoIt is a good move, until amazon starts taking blatant measures like banning traders with google shopping fronts.
- BiteCode_dev 6y agoAt first, me too. But amazon doesn't have a search monopoly, millions of android devices, google maps, or youtube to drive the sales. Neither do they have the huge amount of data google already have on people. Now there is a possibility that google fails because sales require a lot of IRL stuff they suck at. So maybe it will be a balanced game. But if they win, it's going to be a nightmare. Unrelated, but I'm also quite worried about Apple deciding to become a bank one day.
- MisterTea 6y ago> But amazon doesn't have a search monopoly, millions of android devices, google maps, or youtube to drive the sales. Don't forget that something like ~70% of their income comes from AWS. They may not be as visible as Google on the net but they are pretty much the largest provider of web services.
- BiteCode_dev 6y agoSure but they make this money in B2B, not using customers data.
- egypturnash 6y agoOr until they get bored with updating it and EOL it.
- Someone1234 6y agoOr wipe out the low commission fee competition in the payment processor space. If the US had better anti-competitive enforcement I feel like this is akin to the Internet Explorer/Netscape/Microsoft case, in them using one monopoly (search) to take over another market (same hook too: "free"). Plus you know they're going to reward sites for using this in their search rankings (or just outright place them at the top).
- skybrian 6y agoLook like they aren't doing payment processing. They're partnering with Paypal and Shopify. So by "commission-free" that would mean the commission on top of payment processing?
- mav3rick 6y agoLove how baseless allegations like "reward in search rankings" are heeded here. If I write something egregious without a source against Duck Duck Go I'd be downvoted to oblivion
- londons_explore 6y agoGoogle is pretty strict about not artificially rewarding sites in the organic rankings. (ie. non-ads and non-infoboxes). However, despite that those sites will get an implicit reward - if users go to these sites, and find a slick easy checkout and low prices, the site will satisfy their need. Google's goal is to put sites that satisfy the users search request at the top. So, assuming this new Google service is any good, then sites that use it will end up upranked just because those sites satisfy users more than other sites.
- xmprt 6y agoIntuitively I don't like the idea of Google controlling everything but based on the reason you gave it sounds like this would be a good idea right? Customers get a better experience in the end.
- 6y ago
- onlyrealcuzzo 6y agoYou really think Google -- who has floundered in this space for years -- is going to dominate a market that is already dominated by a company (Amazon) with a 50% larger market cap? Walmart and Target have been trying to chip away at Amazon's lead, and they're only getting buried deeper in the dust. Google doesn't exactly have a reputation for entering new markets and dominating them, either...
- londons_explore 6y ago>Google doesn't exactly have a reputation for entering new markets and dominating them, either... Mobile OS's (Android) Online Video (Youtube) Online Maps (Google Maps) Webmail (Gmail) None recently, granted.
- frequentnapper 6y agoWeren't they all acquisitions?
- londons_explore 6y agoGmail wasn't.
- splonk 6y agoGmail was internal. Maps was mostly built by a couple acquisitions, but it wasn't anything like Youtube, where the acquired companies were big established players in the space.
- patmorgan23 6y agoDon't for get calendar and docs
- londons_explore 6y agoI feel like MS Word (offline) still has a majority marketshare for general documenting, and calendars outlook also has a big chunk of the market. Depends on where you draw the boundaries in markets certainly...
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- joyj2nd 6y agoDid somebody shoot Amazon a second asshole?
- ProAm 6y agoI would not trust a sellers business on Google with their history of customer support. Why risk your lively hood?
- ISL 6y agoSo many questions... the big one: How does Google make money from this?
- caiobegotti 6y agoCrossing all your shopping habits with your online profile?
- ProAm 6y agoYou're providing them with market research about inventory, sales, customer demographics, ad click through, etc.... Google isn't doing this for you.
- justaguyhere 6y agoJust curious, what do they do with this data (other than maybe integrating into search)? Do they sell it? If yes, who buys these and what do the buyers do with it?
- grumple 6y agoA little bit of selling it. A little bit of acquisition guidance. And there are certainly some very obvious ways to monetize once they get enough market share.
- BiteCode_dev 6y agoThey can collect the data as usual, and they will, but for once they would not even need to. They can just wait until no shop can make a living without it because they dominate the market. They they start charging.
- patmorgan23 6y agoLike everything ads
- adrianmonk 6y agoDoes this encourage or even require putting your credit card on file with Google? If so, that's actually very valuable for increasing sales of everything else Google sells to consumers. Think of a conversion funnel[1]. At each step of a process toward making a purchase, you lose a certain percentage of users. Adding a payment method (typing in your credit card number, address, etc.) is tedious and requires you to have the card handy, so you lose a lot of people at this stage. If more people are already past the hurdle of having a payment method on file, they can sell more apps/media on the Play store, more devices on the Google Store, more Drive storage upgrades, etc. -- [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conversion_funnel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conversion_funnel
- asdfk-12 6y agoFool me once, shame on you. Fool me 204 times, shame on me. https://killedbygoogle.com/ https://killedbygoogle.com/
- mortehu 6y agoSlashdot.org was plagued by people posting "first post" to every story, so they implemented an automatic "first post" comment to each article, that was removed as soon as other comments appeared. Maybe this comment ("Google will shut this down like so many other products") should be similarly posted automatically to Hacker News on every Google story?
- heavyset_go 6y agoIt's ironic how my least favorite genre of posts are posts that complain about other posts.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- dmurray 6y agoHN could also offer you the option to hide the automatic "Google will shut this down" post, and all its replies.
- sirlatrom 6y agoWoooosh ;)
- organian 6y agoIt's ironic how my least favorite genre of comments are about people discussing the correct usage of the word "ironic".
- asdfk-12 6y agoPerhaps this listing service would get more goodwill from users and business if they were to pay sellers a commission when a listed item sells. Google's extractive (no, it's actually not 'free') business model has become quite tiresome, and they seem to have wasted their first-mover advantage over the past decade.
- iammru 6y agoI doubt this will make a dent to Amazon's monopoly. Amazon is not winning because of they're closed and have high commission. If somebody can compete with Amazon will be companies like JD, coupang, Walmart.
- rdtwo 6y agoWalmart’s search makes amazon look good.
- TheMagicHorsey 6y agoWell, this is a good shot across the bows for Amazon. I feel Amazon was getting a bit abusive towards its sellers. To those who fear Google will become abusive in the long term: yes they might, but then there will be other competitors (perhaps a reformed Amazon) to hold them to a fair cut in the future. Market working as intended in other words.
- bhamta 6y agoThis is 'The Anti-Amazon Alliance' as Ben Thompson puts it. Curious to see if customers will adopt it. I think it lacks two key value props of Amazon: uniform guarantees (Amazon guarantees regardless of seller) and super fast shipping.
- ISL 6y agoIt may depend on the value-proposition for the sellers. If Amazon takes too much of a cut, alternatives, even with fewer customers, may look attractive.
- nine_k 6y agoOf you are big enough, you want to be present on all large trading venues, say, both Amazon and eBay. If this venue proves reasonably well functioning and promoted, big sellers will have to build their presence there, too, bringing in customers and more credibility.
- amelius 6y agoMy guess is that Amazon will start banning vendors that also sell on Google.
- aljg 6y agoThis would almost certainly be illegal (antitrust violation) and probably wouldn't be worth the firestorm even if it was legal.
- gowld 6y agoOK they'll raise seller prices and offer discounts for exclusivity.
- amelius 6y agoExactly. Or just lower vendor search rankings.
- three_seagrass 6y ago
- sleepyshift 6y agoIs Google's head of payment systems really called "Bill Ready"?
- luckydata 6y agoA name, a destiny.
- hitekker 6y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nominative_determinism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nominative_determinism He has embraced the concept: https://www.linkedin.com/in/williamready/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/williamready/
- cosmodisk 6y agoOr when your name is Rich Ricci and you run a bank...
- crawsome 6y agoNintendo's CEO's last name is Bowser. Our AG is named "Barr" (Pun on a Bar association) Is there a cool collection of these somewhere? These are the only evidence I feel that we're in a simulation and the engineer is fucking with us.
- civil_engineer 6y agoThere's a urologist in Austin, Texas named Richard Chopp.
- pesfandiar 6y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aptronym#Notable_examples https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aptronym#Notable_examples
- whalabi 6y agoIncredible.
- skybrian 6y agoI used to like buying with Google Checkout back in the day. And does anyone remember Froogle? They used to have free product listings, and then they started charging. One of the reasons I heard for that change was that they were getting a lot of spam. I guess by partnering with Shopify they can let someone else worry about that, but likely they'll have a counterfeit problem if this gets any traction.
- londons_explore 6y agoShopify isn't free right? So effectively while Google is claiming they are "free", the reality is the merchant still has to pay...
- tantalor 6y ago"It’s now free to sell on Google" https://blog.google/products/shopping/its-now-free-to-sell-on-google/ https://blog.google/products/shopping/its-now-free-to-sell-o...
- 6y ago
- Mave83 6y agoNot going to happen. The company with one of the worst customer support vs the most customer centric. Maybe some dont care, but I know a lot that prefer Amazon over any other Shop because of the service.
- prepend 6y agoCould they just bring back froogle already? If it’s free to list, why not just make a special shopping filter on google to find stuff for sale. Amazon included. I miss the day when I could google for products and find the best price quality. Amazon search shows more ads than search results and the world really needs a shopping google.
- arpinum 6y agoGoogle's e-commerce had been floundering for years, I'm glad they brought in fresh leadership and upped investment to keep Amazon from having a near-monopoly. Customers will benefit.
- ChrisMarshallNY 6y agoAnyone remember when ATMs were free?
- techntoke 6y agoNo, I don't. How long ago was that? I hear that credit unions don't charge for other credit unions ATMs.
- ChrisMarshallNY 6y agoIn the 1980s or so, when they first appeared (I'm old). They were free for quite a while. Folks figured that it was like your local heroin dealer: first one's free. We knew that it would just be a matter of time before ATM fees started showing up. At first, they weren't bad, but now, it can cost you five bucks to pull out a sawbuck.
- jeffbee 6y agoWhy would they be free? Before the ATM we had to go to the bank Friday afternoon or Saturday morning (9-12 only) to get money after pay day. If you couldn't wait in the big-ass line, or if you just had something else to do, then you just didn't have any money! It was ridiculous! The ATM brought revolutionary convenience. You could get twenty bucks at 11pm if you wanted to.
- tonymet 6y agoThis is what happens when you kill third party cookies. The signals have tremendous value, so networks will move them into first party activities . Expect further consolidation
- tonymet 6y agoLol why downvote ? Are you anticipating a different outcome ?
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- Andrew_nenakhov 6y agotimeo Danaos et dona ferentes [1] [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeo_Danaos_et_dona_ferentes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeo_Danaos_et_dona_ferentes
- martinesko36 6y agoSorry if this is a silly question, but is this in any way replacing Stripe?
- vdfs 6y agoNo, Stripe is not a direct competitor here. Also, Shopify Payment is built on top of Stripe
- flavor8 6y agoThey need to solve shipping. Partner with Uber (or hey, Waymo) to pick up and drop off packages from shops to consumers. An alternate model would be to make search good enough let consumers find stores within a radius of their current location selling X, and price compare them. E.g. I need a widget - stores a, b and c are selling it. Store a is $14.99 and 5 miles away, store b is $8.99 and 15 miles away, store c is $11.99 and 20 miles away.
- stx 6y agoI think for some products on shopping.google.com you can already search within your area. I think it it does not work with all products though I know I have seen it on some. Like electronics at Best Buy. Just search on shopping.google.com and then in the filters on the left side check the box for "Available nearby".
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- beenBoutIT 6y agoThey need to partner with the US Postal Service and the USPS needs to become the primary delivery method for this type of retail. The USPS has the advantage of already visiting every reltail location 6 days a week for mail delivery. As far as society as a whole is concerned, adding additional postal workers to the workforce is a lot better than adding more temporary gig workers.
- Corrado 6y agoI think this is a great idea. In fact, I would like to see Google partner with things like Craigslist or FB Marketplace to list items from anyone and then use USPS to ship them. It would be like the worlds largest yard sale. 1. Dig something out of your basement that might be worth something; Treadmill, Pokemon Cards, etc. 2. "List" it on Google Shopping 3. USPS picks it up and delivers it 4. PROFIT!
- mrweasel 6y ago
- H8crilA 6y agoWar of attrition with Amazon. This could be fun, if only Amazon wasn't the ultimate champion of competition destruction.
- noncoml 6y agoIt's not 2000's anymore. Nobody falls for the "free" as in free while we increase our user base anymore.
- bbarnett 6y agoWell... "free" has been used like this for thousands of years. Traders/merchants spouting free this or that, like a car dealer giving free oil changes, or midas with a free inspection. Nothing is free. Ever. What's changed is you personally know this now. Many still fall for this, and there are always more humans to be scammed. Bear in mind, most of humanity can't read. Are not really literate. The UN's definition of literacy, is reading at a grade 6 level. Not how you read in 6th grade, but whatever lets a 6th grader, make it to 7th grade. Can someone read a stop sign, do not enter sign? That's pretty much 'literate'. While street smarts exist, bear in mind how many 'stupids' exist... So yup.. lots of fresh pigeons.
- jiofih 6y ago> These changes are about creating a monopoly and profiting from it later
- jeffbee 6y agoThis doesn't seem to solve the main problem I have with Amazon: even when I know exactly what I want, it's impossible to find. Amazon hides the thing you want behind the items they want you to buy instead, and they allow fakes and spammers to flourish. They never have the right aspects in their search filters, either. Looks like Google is the same way. I can't find an A19 LED light bulb with 2700K color temperature and CRI 90 or better. I'm going to have a much better experience in an actual store.
- azinman2 6y agoI'd like them to add country of origin to the facets, but that would allow me to eliminate 90% of Amazon so they never will...
- gowld 6y agoLarger issue is getting the data honestly.
- hansvm 6y agoI've noticed a trend lately where items will "ship from the US" with an estimated 2-3 day delivery date only to be delayed at the sender, eventually "ship" a month later, and arrive with international postage a few days afterward. I'd love to filter that kind of crap out as well, but I'm not sure how Amazon could go about actually implementing it.
- afterwalk 6y agoBy tracking actually delivery data and displaying some aggregated statistics on the product page?
- donor20 6y agoThat's happening on Aliexpress and other places too - I've wondered about this. An aliexpress seller said ships from US, arrives within a 5 days or free, then 1.5 months later it finally arrives and they get dispute overturned because it was delivered. So pathetic. The stupid postage gives away their "shipped from US" game.
- stevespang 6y agoCommission free until Google get's traction and then all kinds of bullshit rules and games, and ZERO customer support . . . would you really trust the same people who just arbitrarily cut off peoples gmail accounts and such, and you have ZERO ability to contact them and sort it out ? then, imagine them taking it to the next level holding on to your money and not responding . . . I can certainly sympathesize with that YouTube lady last year who went to YouTube headquarters and starting slinging lead . . . bastards.
- breakfastduck 6y agoSounds noble but if google are at the helm then that's the opposite of what I want. I'm not Amazons biggest fan but Google are the last people on earth I'd want to have my purchase history. Yeah they look all corporate good with their no commission / seller first attitude but it's just another data harvesting excersize & I'd rather not buy at all than buy through Google for 'free'.
- surbas 6y agoIf you use google for email they already have your order history...
- esrauch 6y agoI noticed Amazon has stopped informing you what you actually purchased in their confirmation emails (though the emails still have other purchase suggestions in them). I'm guessing that might be partially to prevent the info from being conveyed to Google in Gmail.
- three_seagrass 6y agoI can almost guarantee it's to get you to click back into the store for re-engagement.
- Hokusai 6y ago> I can almost guarantee it's to get you to click back into the store for re-engagement. Yes. I saw that while in China. I would get push notifications from Gmail and I was able to know what was the mail about without access to Gmail. But, for Facebook I would only get "You got a message". And that was totally unhelpful. Now, I knew that I had a message that I was not able to access too. Seriously infuriating.
- Corrado 6y agoI think it can be for both giving less data to Google and to get you to re-engage at Amazon.
- robryan 6y agoSelling on Google has gone through a lot of iterations for them now as nothing seems to end up working out how they want. They are unsure whether they should just advertise products, or if they are selling whether they should handle shipping, customer support, returns, seller reputation/reviews, payment processing and making money from fees or just as a play to keep people on Google and away from Amazon. At various times they have scaled up with real employees to try and drive the service and work with merchants, at others they have stuffed the whole process behind contact forms and Indian first level support. I would assume that the current results indicate that their commissions are either loss making after all the value add services they are providing like customer service/ returns, or the amount they bring in is so small that it isn't worth having them there as a roadblock to adoption.
- rawoke083600 6y agoWhat i need a price_parity for amazon and my local country south africa. I agree.its mostly import duties by my misguided government.(we dont make cpus, why tax them ?). Im thinking the next n big thing in online shopping is getting the global-village-catalogue at my doorstep with a reasonable shipping price, ppl in America dont know how lucky you are to have free shipping. We can pay 2x the price in dollars just for shipping.
- reilly3000 6y agoHas anybody seen the UX? It’s very deceptive. I went to a local business listing and tapped on Menu, expecting to see a deep link to their site. Instead it shows a Buy On Google page with hosted menu. It was hard to leave that page; my browser history could only start over the search since it was an SPA of a local listing. Buy on Google is the new AMP, except now it’s taking over the rest of commerce, not just web publishing.
- avilay 6y agoDoes anybody else think this is in response to Apple's privacy crackdown on third party tracking data? If you buy on Buy, then you are still first party for Google and they can still get your signals.
- mark_l_watson 6y agoThe author Douglas Rushkoff ("Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus," etc.) has a lot of good things to say about the long term dangers of relying on huge retailers like Amazon (and now apparently Google). I am making an effort to find much smaller online retailers. About 4 months ago I started using VitaCost for some food items, an to be honest their service initially was not great (possibly they were overwhelmed at the beginning of covid-19 lock-down). However, they just kept getting better and better and now I use my shopping history to reorder very quickly. Reading their privacy policy, they do share your purchase history with marketing partners and I can only hope this is on a smaller scale than having Google having my purchase history. A counter example: my wife and I needed a new coffee pot and I knew the brand I wanted. I went to that company's web site, tried to order, but was referred to Amazon and Walmart Online. Oh well.