What online search company wouldn’t want a bigger slice of the online shopping market pie? That’s right, everybody would want one. It has been reported by Re/code that Google is investing $550 million to expand it Shopping Express initiative, which is their same day delivery service for local products.
Investment so far has gone towards the marketing of the service in each new city and the buildup of a fleet of delivery vehicles, as well as towards paying for a network of couriers and workers to pack up the goods in stores and deliver packages to shoppers’ doorsteps.
This movement by Google is a clear step towards direct competition with Amazon. What was not mentioned in the article was which cites was going to get Google Shopping Express.
The biggest difference between Amazon and Google’s Shopping Express is that Amazon has fulfillment centers across the country, which will allow them to ship to the customer from the closest fulfillment center, and Google Shopping Express has developed partnerships with local retailers to deliver products from the physical brick and mortar stores. According to the head of Google’s Shopping Express, Tom Fallows, a flat-fee membership model will be put into place. At this point though, it’s not clear how much the service will cost.
Fallows said, “We intend this to be an affordable service that as many people as possible can adopt.”