Google

Despite the fact that technology has been zooming along, retailers have been slower to adopt than most other industries. Smartphones have become the norm, and a new value-conscious and customer service-driven consumer has emerged from the recession.

Mobile usage in retail is on the rise. Every year we see an increasing number of shopping queries originate from mobile phones. As mobile continues to proliferate, it’s also fundamentally changing the way people shop. Mobile and shopping are made for each other. 

A new way to pay for your purchases and get discounts at American Eagle Outfitters has just launced. Say hello to the Google Wallet app, a tap-and-go payment method that can be linked to your Citibank credit card or an American Eagle gift card (or you can add money to your Google Wallet account from any credit card online).

The hype surrounding the launch of Google+ went into overdrive a few months ago when it debuted to a select group of beta testers. But now that the service has been opened to the public, a new report claims that the social networking site has suffered a staggering loss of roughly 60 percent of its traffic.

Google has launched Google Trusted Stores, a new pilot program that helps shoppers identify online merchants that offer a great shopping experience. The Google Trusted Store badge is awarded to e-commerce sites that demonstrate a track record of on-time shipping and excellent customer service. When visiting a qualifying store, shoppers can hover over the Google Trusted Store badge and see metrics on the store’s shipping and customer service performance.

Google has opened its first physical shop. The Chromezone is a shop within a branch of Currys and PC World on London’s Tottenham Court Road, and is being used by Google to trial a new way of selling its own Chromebook laptops.

The top brass at TextureMedia (formerly The NaturallyCurly Network), a social network and community for people with wavy, curly, kinky hair and the brands and professionals who service them, launched a multifunctional, free mobile application called Curls on the Go this past summer.

The competitive shopping marketplace is really changing with the advent of Google Product Search, which encourages consumers to make split-second decisions based on price. Are shoppers changing the way they make purchasing decisions based on search shopping feeds like Google Product Search? What are some practices around how to reach shoppers in this new environment?

If you're like most retailers, you're probably already familiar with the hardships of selling online. You're most likely well aware of the competitive nature of search engine optimization, the rising price of pay per click (still a great medium when optimized well), affiliate marketing nexus laws and the growing competition that comparison shopping engines are providing. Given this environment, you're also starting to understand the need to explore new options for pushing your brands and products.