Google is about to make mobile shopping a whole lot easier, reports have claimed.
The search giant is preparing to introduce a “Buy” button that will be displayed in sponsored results on mobile search, sources told the Wall Street Journal.
When clicked on, the user is taken to a dedicated page for that product, complete with the retailer’s branding, where they can buy the item right then and there without needing to visit the retailer’s own site.
Such a move would effectively help cut out the middle man in millions of ecommerce transactions, and push Google up alongside the likes of Amazon and eBay in terms of shopping interactions.
Company CEO Eric Schmidt raised eyebrows last October when he claimed the company saw Amazon as its biggest rival, with the latter becoming an increasingly powerful presence online.
Mobile is also becoming an increasingly important platform for Google, with the company revealing earlier this month that smartphone and tablet traffic has surpassed that from PCs and laptops in several major markets around the world, including the US and Japan.
Today’s reports could also be linked to the news that Google was introducing smartphone-optimised ad formats that it hopes will entice users to click on mobile ads than its traditional AdWords. These include picture-heavy automobile ads that show users a gallery of their dream ride before directing them to dealerships, and hotel ads that combine availability, prices, user reviews, and pictures into one compact mobile format.
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