Why it matters:
- With nearly all shopping journeys now beginning with online search, connecting with the right consumers and capturing their attention has become crucial for small businesses.
- Forty percent of shopping searches mention a brand or retailer, demonstrating the demand for more in-depth information about the merchants behind the products.
- AI tools for generating ad content are gaining wide adoption, with 80% of merchants saying they help them be more efficient.
When he talks to small business owners in his role as Senior Director, Merchant Shopping at Google, Jeff Harrell typically hears questions about discovery and trust.
They are interested in how to grow digital traffic, how be discovered in a crowded digital marketplace, and how to build trust with consumers searching for products, Harrell told CO—.
“Historically with local stores, the challenge was always how to get physical people in the store,” he said. “In this digital age, it’s turned into merchants wanting to know how to grow their digital foot traffic. How do we stand out? How do we grab user attention?”
A year ago, Google released Product Studio, a set of tools designed to make it easier for merchants to create more compelling online ads. This year, as part of its Google Marketing Live showcase in May, Google announced additional AI tools in Product Studio, as well as new ways for online brands and businesses to tell their stories in their profile pages.
These added features are part of the ongoing effort by Google to provide tools that help level the playing field for small merchants as they compete online, Harrell said.
Harrell outlined for CO— what the key updates announced by Google will mean for small businesses.
Product Studio adds new tools, like turning still photos into videos with a single click
Last year’s Product Studio launch gave retailers the ability to use AI tools to improve the quality of their product images and to create background images for the products.
Now, merchants can upload a product image, along with a lifestyle image that reflects the brand, and provide a prompt describing the scene. Product Studio then will generate relevant, branded marketing content.
Merchants also now have the ability to turn still photos into videos with one click. For example, a shot of a beach scene can become a video with rolling surf.
In addition, product shots now can be turned into 3D views, where the image rotates to show a sneaker or other products from all angles. Merchants provide images of the product from different angles and the AI creates the 3D view.
Historically with local stores, the challenge was always how to get physical people in the store. In this digital age, it’s turned into merchants wanting to know how to grow their digital foot traffic. How do we stand out? How do we grab user attention?
Jeff Harrell, Senior Director, Merchant Shopping, Google
Google also is expanding the use of the virtual try-on technology it released last year, adding it to apparel ads for men’s and women’s tops, giving shoppers the ability to see how a shirt looks on many different body types.
Harrell said he is particularly excited about the ability of the new Product Studio tools to make life easier for small businesses because of his background working for a small retailer early in his career.
He worked for a local arts and crafts retailer doing product photography, initially for print catalogs and then for online.
“I can’t tell you how many hours I spent taking the photographs, retouching them, making them great,” he said. “This is a pain point we know still exists.”
For small merchants, Harrell said, “we know that high quality, engaging content builds this connection to shoppers.”
Since announcing the first version of Product Studio last year, a Google survey found that 80% of merchants say it is helping them operate more efficiently, and that one in three of the images being generated by Product Studio are being used in marketing content.
Those statistics “reaffirm that there is a fit there, and they are starting to see the impact” of Product Studio, Harrell said. “It provides them a way to make sure they’re showing up at their best when their products surface across Google.”
Visual, brand-driven profiles for online merchants: ‘The problem this solves is bringing all of the information the brand has into a consolidated place’
Google data from the beginning of this year found that more than 40% of shopping queries in search mention a brand or retailer. That demonstrates that consumers are eager for more information about brands while shopping for products, Harrell said.
At Google Marketing Live, Google unveiled a new, more comprehensive, and more visual brand profile for online merchants that lets them provide the in-depth kind of information Google offers local businesses in its search and maps platforms.
The new brand profiles will be able to include product and brand images, videos, customer reviews, deals, promotions, and information such as shipping policies.
“The problem space this solves… is bringing all of the information the brand has into a consolidated place,” Harrell said.
As it becomes easier for users to learn about newly discovered brands, they are more likely to complete a purchase with those brands, he said.
“For any business to stand out it has to have a compelling narrative,” Harrell said. “We want to afford them the ability to tell that.”
Tapping AI to engage with online consumers ‘at a higher level’ that echoes shopping IRL
For small businesses that are starting out or looking to expand, Harrell recommends that they take advantage of the tools Google offers to make sure they present the best, most engaging content when shoppers are conducting online searches.
The new AI tools, he said, bring the feel, touch, and interaction of in-person shopping to online. “Being able to look at the whole product, or see it in a more lifelike setting allows people to engage with it at a higher level,” he said.
Merchants – especially small business owners – have been quick to adopt the new AI tools as they have been released, Harrell said.
“They’re excited to experiment with features as they come out. They can see they provide more value add, more connections to the shoppers, more efficiency. And there’s a pretty big appetite for that.”
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