Google has announced that it will now let marketers update their Place Pages with real-time data on product availability. For brands hoping to catch foot traffic and ecommerce from nearby shoppers, this could be a profitable feature.
Back in January, Brafton reported that the search giant partnered with Edgenet in order to offer more information about products to users. The company has also been aggressively promoting local search features (having launched its Places search service back in October). The latest announcement seems to marry product info with geographically focused searches.
Google explains that when local merchants provide the company with product availability information, Google Places will update their Place Pages to feature a “Popular products available at this store” tab.
Searchers can also choose to “Search within this store,” to search an entire inventory for particular items.
The company believes this service could help make businesses attractive to nearby shoppers who may be otherwise “unfamiliar” with stores. Indeed, finding online data about product availability for nearby stores could help boost commerce – at this year's Affiliate Summit West, experts pointed out that 90 percent of purchases are made within 20 miles consumers' homes.
