According to reports, the latest data shows that Google’s online shopping users have increased, and it has seized market share from Amazon. A series of updates to Google Shopping is driving an increase in Google Shopping transactions, Morgan Stanley said in a report today.
Analysts also said that more and more people are also starting their online shopping journey through Google (ie, searching on Google first). The shift is also happening among Amazon Prime users, who conduct e-commerce searches less frequently on Amazon.com.
The Morgan Stanley survey results show that 57% of respondents first head to Google platforms, including Google Search and YouTube, to learn about new products, up from 54% in May 2021. During the same period, the percentage of Amazon Prime subscribers who turned to Google for these initial searches increased to 56%, up from 51% previously.
This shift in behavior is stark, said Morgan Stanley analysts. The number of Prime members who searched first on Amazon fell by more than 3% during the period. For years, Google’s share of shopping searches has been eroded by Amazon. If Google succeeds in stopping or reversing this trend, it could mean billions of dollars more in search ad revenue and other potential revenue.
Morgan Stanley analysts believe one of the reasons for this is a shortage of supply from Amazon, while Google’s inventory comes from multiple retailers. The pandemic has boosted e-commerce over the past year or so, benefiting giants like Amazon and Shopify. Initially, some analysts also believed that Google could be left behind.
But Google has used the boom to roll out a slew of shopping tool updates and features, including the ability for merchants to list their products on Google for free and the ability to search for products using Google Lens.
In addition, Google has explored ways to reach the millions of users who visit YouTube every day. In November, Google piloted a week-long shopping campaign featuring social media stars selling products via YouTube.