People now search more on Amazon for products rather than Google. This trend should be a heads up call for Google because providing searchers the results from where people can buy something is a huge business prospect for Google.
The marketing company, Bloomberg, has compiled a report which makes it clear that half of the Americans do the product search on Amazon rather than searching on search engines and online retailers.
According to Bloomberg:
Fifty-five percent of those surveyed made their first search on Amazon, up from 44% a year ago. At the same time, just 27% of people began at search engines, down from 34%. Retailers also saw a decline, dropping to 16% from 21%.
The day on which the study was performed was Labor Day. Analysis involved data from 2,000 consumers from US. Although the study didn’t involve any data from other countries, a calculated assumption would definitely suggest same kind of results from western countries.
This data clearly shows how well Amazon is doing when it comes to online shopping. However, this isn’t good news for Google. The main business for Google is search results and this business would be affected badly if people start searching for desired products directly from Amazon.
Another hurdle in the way of Google is a situation that restricts the search engine to serve shopping or product search in a biased manner. This way, the searches for educational or other informational content would also be affected, making the overall situation pretty bad for Google.
A representative from Google refused to accept that the threat really exists. According to that representative, the chances for the product purchase are higher when people search on Amazon rather than any search engine (it’s something that Bloomberg said too). However, majority of people do not end up buying the product from Amazon. Their main objective is to search and compare the product with the results shown by search engines. Surely there is nothing wrong with that and it shouldn’t be a big worry for search engines either. Moreover, Google isn’t solely dependent on its search feature. A big chuck of revenue comes from services like Google Play and DoubleClick ad network.
However, Amazon has emerged as a search engine for online buyers and this should be huge concern for Google. This trend is not the result of Google’s shortcomings only but Amazon has also made some upgrades that keep turning things around. Besides providing ease in searching for products, Amazon occasionally introduces different deals like free delivery or delivery within hours. These features certainly add more to the worth of an Amazon subscription.
