Google is seeing gains in its Google Express same-day delivery service this holiday season, as it looks to claw back ecommerce search traffic lost to Amazon.com because more consumers are going there for product research.
According to Google, as cited in an article by Bloomberg, Google Express handled 50% more toys in the two weeks after the Thanksgiving holiday, while sales of books rose more than 30%.
Google Express was added in Chicago, Boston and Washington in October, on top of the existing areas of San Francisco/Northern California, New York and Los Angeles. Originally a free service, Google Express now charges $95 a year or $10 a month for unlimited deliveries, or $4.99 per eligible order. Same-day or overnight shipping for orders over $15 is free for members.
An analyst with Robert W. Baird & Co. estimated that 30% to 40% of Google’s core search business — comprising more than half of the company’s annual revenue of about $60 billion — is tied to ecommerce, which is why Amazon as a product search tool is such a threat. Forrester estimated that the portion of shoppers who used Amazon to begin their search for online purchases was 39% in the third quarter, double what it was in 2009.
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