Google vs. Amazon: The Battle for Ecommerce Supremacy
Amazon and Google have been public adversaries for more than two decades now. If that does not give credence to the acuteness of their long-standing rivalry then we do not know what else will. Amazon.com, Inc. and Google comprise of the Big Five companies in the U.S. information technology industry, along with Apple, Microsoft and Facebook. But what makes the discord between these two companies so unique?
Google was founded just four years after Amazon and both companies eventuated with the intention to restructure and revolutionize the way humankind worked with modern technology. It was not long after that the both companies went head to head for being at the helm of the world's greatest informational technology organization. Google specializes in internet-related services and products, which include online advertising technologies, a search engine, cloud computing, software and hardware.
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As far as Amazon is concerned, its main areas of service constitute of ecommerce, cloud computing, digital streaming and artificial intelligence. Amazon is without a doubt the world's largest online marketplace, with an estimated revenue of US$280.522 billion (2019). It is also considered the largest internet company by revenue in the entire world.
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On the other hand, Google.com is the world's most visited search engine and offers a plethora of services designed for work and productivity. After accumulating a substantial amount of growth and notoriety after its success, Google has since launched a chained of products, acquisitions, and partnerships beyond a traditional core search engine, which was the only primary function of Google.com back in the old days. It started by launching services adhering to work and productivity such as Google Docs, Google Sheets, and Google Slides, email (Gmail), scheduling and managing time (Google Calendar), cloud storage (Google Drive), instant messaging and video chat (Duo, Hangouts, Chat, and Meet) and the list goes on.
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Another monumental invention which the company is responsible for designing is the Android mobile operating system, which is apparently contending with Apple's iOS, the Google Chrome web browser, and Chrome OS. The names Amazon and Google cannot be excluded from the discussion of online retailing business in the world because of their trailblazing innovation and impact on the way people use technology now as compared to the way it was used about two decades ago.
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But what makes the two companies so different from one another when it comes to the way they carry out their operations? The truth is that these two ecommerce giants operate via very different mechanisms. Let's begin with Amazon. Amazon does not employ assistance from external forces to rank their products whereas Google leverages signals from various websites, social indicators, and different other search related methods to garner search results for its users.
There is no doubt that Google has transformed itself into a household name in the past decade as the world's predominant internet search provider, however, when it comes to most people's preferred go-to online marketplace, Amazon always ends up taking the first place.
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Before explicating on the nature of the animosity between the two biggest multinational information technology organizations in the whole world, it is important to note down the reasons behind the rivalry between the two. It is often a misunderstanding that the battle for ecommerce dominance between Amazon and Google is over accumulating as much as of a widespread search dominance, as most people believe. But that's completely contrary to what the situation is all about.
Each of the two giant companies has their own motives influenced by opposing profit models and leading, non-negotiable goals. Google primarily accumulates profit when people purchase and run ads across all other Google governed platforms. However, that's only fruitful and profitable when people actually use the search engine, which then converts that real estate value to real profit. Google does this by measuring its algorithm on the basis of what people want to see most as top searches content with one another to reach to the top spot. In other words, Google still dominates the world's spot for most popular search engine, even though Amazon has a 54% market share of product searches run by Google.
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Google vs. Amazon: Putting things in order
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In the recent years, the internet arena has transformed into a battlefield between digital advertising markets run by a form of oligopoly where technology giants like Google and Amazon set the scene for to raise their revenue. For the most part, everyone one in for ad dollars goes straight right to the Google/Facebook duopoly. Although Microsoft and Verizon, who own subsidiary companies such as LinkedIn and Yahoo hold stable market shares, neither of them has exhibited legitimate promise to come to pass as the third giant in this industry.
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Before 2018, Google had the title of the world's most popular online place to look for a product and make a purchase, but this title was transferred to Amazon which it still proudly upholds. But this does not mean that consumers have forgotten about Google and its services. Millions of customers still refer to Google for new product launches on a regular basis every day, owing to Google's strategy of playing shopping ads, which allows users to then hop on to Amazon for making actual purchases. In the same manner, more and more advertisers are moving their money to Amazon, thus increasing the company's ad sales to a larger number.
However, in the year 2019, Amazon's advertising revenue reached the level of almost US $3 billion in contrast to Google's quarterly mark of US $30 billion, but even this gradual increase in Amazon's revenue meant that Google had to fortify its place in this astronomical industry. There is no concealing the fact that Google is not going to sit back while Amazon takes bigger innovative steps to come for Google's spot and impede its revenue development. But then what must Google do in order to revamp its ad game? Google has decided to take Google Shopping a few steps forward by upgrading the way it delivers more quality and value to their ecommerce advertisers that depend upon them to attract consumers.
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Making Google Shopping experience bigger and better
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What attracts a large amount of audience to Amazon is its personalized and user-friendly appeal. It not only provides information about the product and services you are looking for, but also introduces its users to a multitude of other information. This is what makes Amazon the leading choice of users when it comes to online marketplaces. It is crucial to note that this allows customers to make more conscious and well-informed decisions before making a purchase.
This was not the case with Google Shopping until now as it has started to incorporate more comprehensive features to attract customers to shop from it. Google Shopping is starting to take into account the brands, prices, locations, features, and reviews on their ads to keep users from getting side-tracked and get the full experience of using the service. All these options are necessary because they all allow for better chances of user engagement when it comes to influencing purchase decisions.
Consumers are almost always looking for information that is reliable and easily available to them and does not take much of their time. Users also get discouraged to use a service if their experience with it has been a frustrating one. Amazon has without the shadow of a doubt excelled in making online shopping experience the most enjoyable one for its users, and Google has also taken a few notes to come up with a unique ecommerce strategy of its own.
By taking and revamping all the significant points Amazon has used, Google has transformed its new shopping experience to inculcate a wide range of information available for users to browse and millions of products with their information to make more informed decisions as a buyer. When a consumer goes to Google shopping and searches for a product, they will be able to filter the results according to their personal needs and preferences. What they are looking for will not matter as Google Shopping will deliver them the most relevant and accurate results.
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Expanding and showcasing shopping ads
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With the help of personalized recommendations and the seamlessness and comprehensiveness of the new shopping interface offered by Google shopping, it has become easier for advertisers to attract customers on there by using it to their advantage as users are already aware of the products they want to buy on there. That's the reason behind the launch of showcase shopping ads back in 2017.
The motivation behind it was to simply broadcast a product to consumers, invite them and then prompt them to look for relevant products in the offerings. Google has used Google Search to display the showcase shopping ad type to audience for allowing them to discover more products. But not only that, Google Images is also a very exemplary and unique way of coming across new ideas for fashion, beauty, as well as lifestyle purchases. And last but not the least, there's YouTube, which is indubitably Google's largest asset.
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Why the new Google Shopping experience matters
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There is no arguing that Amazon dominates the branded ecommerce sector and attracts the largest audience with its services. Amazon targets a much narrower band of searchers than Google: active shoppers. A shopper might want to go to Amazon to search and discover products, and by that time they will need to know what exactly they are looking for in a general sense. But how do you narrow down your search? Normally you would go through a much broader search and discovery process first. That's where Google has the upper hand - Google serves contents and experiences, not just products so even high-funnel searches about customer pain points and interests can lead searchers to the right website.
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On the other hand, Google is considered to be the archive and gatekeeper of all online information. That is where Google's role in all of this remains unparalleled. It can easily connect advertisers to potential customers when they are actively using their services or browsing on products on there.
It is important to keep in mind that potential customers are all over the internet, even when they are not on the internet. And since Google is the main option for users to engage in any online search related activity, there are chances it will be able to attract a considerable amount of audience for its products.