Shopify today announced that it is deepening its partnership with Google, thus giving enterprise retail search and discovery an impressive upgrade. Enterprise brands using Commerce Component by Shopify can access Google Cloud’s Discovery Al solutions.
Merchants can integrate Google Cloud’s search and discovery tooling directly with their online stores. This latest integration aims to address one of the major concerns of enterprise retailers which is search abandonment. The cost of search abandonment is really huge. Across the world, it costs retailers over $2 trillion annually, found a Google Cloud-commissioned Harris Poll survey.
Our partnership with Google Cloud brings together the best in commerce with the best in search to unlock a trillion-dollar opportunity for brands.
Harley Finkelstein, President, Shopify
What Does This Integration Offer
Google Cloud’s Discovery AI solutions provide better results for ambiguous and broad queries “including non-product and semantic search to effectively match product attributes with store content ” thus leading to quick product discovery that is to the point. It uses artificial intelligence to offer personalized experiences to users, thus providing optimal ordering and product display once shoppers select a category, for example, “kitchenware or men’s jackets”.
Gradually, the AI gets to know the preferred product ordering for each page on the website by leveraging historical data and optimizing what and how products are displayed for better accuracy, relevance, and the probability of making a sale.
The search personalization and recommendations AI display products by studying consumer’s behaviour patterns like adds to cart, clicks, purchases and other information. Google Cloud Recommendations AI solution also enables retailers to offer personalized recommendations. Advanced security and privacy practices ensure “retailer data is isolated with strong access controls” and is used to provide “relevant search results on their own properties”.
“Bringing Together The Best In Commerce”
“Our partnership with Google Cloud brings together the best in commerce with the best in search to unlock a trillion-dollar opportunity for brands. We know that 69% of consumers in the US alone say a store’s search is the most common way they shop, but only around 10% are getting consistently accurate search results. It’s a massive problem that we’re excited to help enterprise retailers solve through our continued work with Google,” said Harley Finkelstein, President of Shopify.
“We’re bringing together the best in commerce with the best in search to solve a complex and costly problem for enterprise retailers — world-class search and discovery for the online store,” he added.
Kaz Nejatian, VP of Product & Chief Operating Officer also took to Twitter to inform netizens about the latest collaboration. He wrote, “Major flex: @GoogleCloud’s Discovery AI solutions are now available to enterprise retailers using Commerce Components by @Shopify. This means more relevant results in your on-site search. Absolute game changer.”
Power Of AI
Research by Google shows that 69 percent of US consumers use a search box or search function to look for products on retail sites. This common way is followed by general website browsing done by 63 percent of shoppers. The main problem lies in the search experiences of retailers as there is no consistency.
Only 12 percent of shoppers claim to get accurate results for their search and 11 percent get good alternatives while using the search function on the retailer’s site. 76 percent of respondents said that last month they used a retail website’s search box to look for the item but it failed to provide the required result.
Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud said, “Google Cloud’s integration with Shopify enables brands to quickly deploy the power of AI. By making it easier for retailers to create best-in-class product discovery experiences, shoppers can now find exactly what they want faster.”
“Shopify integrating Google Cloud’s Discovery AI technology into its enterprise retail solution puts the power of AI directly into the hands of merchants and brands to solve everyday problems,” he added.
Commerce Components by Shopify And Enterprise Retail
Rainbow Shops, an apparel brand with 1000s of products and a presence across The United States is one of the first Shopify retailers to make use of the Google Cloud and Commerce Components by Shopify integration. “For a retailer of our size, working with a commerce platform that unlocks agility and flexibility for all parts of our business is critical.
Shopify, and their partnership with Google Cloud, means that we easily integrated Google-quality search directly with our online store, and the results speak for themselves with search volume up 48%,” said David Cost, Vice President of eCommerce and Marketing at Rainbow Shops.
Commerce Components is Shopify’s enterprise solution launched in January 2023. Commerce Components consist of open-source tools and libraries that help build commerce experiences on the web. These tools are designed to be flexible and modular, allowing developers to build custom e-commerce solutions that meet the specific needs of their businesses. JB Hi-Fi, Mattel, Steve Madden, Glossier, Spanx, Staples and Coty are some of the existing enterprise retailers on Shopify.
Google Cloud’s Discovery AI solutions can be accessed across the globe by enterprise retailers using Commerce Components by Shopify. For the unversed, enterprise retail is the practice of selling products to businesses instead of individual consumers. It often involves sale of specialized services or products used in the business operations such as office equipment, software and industrial machinery.
Shopify And Google’s Earlier Collaboration
In May 2021, Google announced its partnership with Shopify, offering 1.7 million merchants of the e-commerce giant the power to reach the target audience through Google Search and its other services. All a merchant needs to do is to sign up and their products will appear across Google’s 1 billion “shopping journeys” that happen every day via Maps, Lens, Search, YouTube and Images.