March 16, 2006 Comments
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The Financial Times ran an article yesterday that talked about Google's plans to use Google Base to launch an online marketplace in Europe. The article suggests that Google Base would allow small businesses that don't otherwise have the resources for e-commerce sites to offer up their products and services online. The offering could echo other major e-commerce marketplaces like those offered by Amazon, eBay and Yahoo.
From the article:
Google plans a significant push into the European retail industry with a service aimed at giving traditional bricks-and-mortar retailers a base from which to market and sell their goods online.
The US-based search engine company plans to develop Google Base, a product still in testing, into an online retail platform. The service would give retailers access to the hundreds of millions of Google users.
and
Google would index and package the information into a consumer-friendly search engine, giving its users a virtual supermarket across a number of retail brands.
Mr Arora said: "Google Base is going to have a huge impact on retailers," adding that the move reflected internal research, which found that many leading European retailers did not feel they were competitive enough online.
I imagine it would depend on how it's offered, what the costs are, how much tech savvy is required to setup shop and so forth. Google's under a lot of pressure from investors to develop multiple revenue streams, so it's also possible that the new offering in Europe would serve as a smaller test market for a similar offering in the United States and throughout the rest of the world.
Jennifer Laycock is the Editor of Search Engine Guide, an educational web site aimed at translating the search marketing world into something that small business owners can understand. Jennifer specializes in common sense search engine marketing, viral marketing and customer outreach via social media and blogs. A former search marketing consultant and in-house trainer, Jennifer’s clients have included companies like Verizon, American Greetings and Highlights for Children. Her primary clients now are a little girl named Elnora and a little boy named Emmitt.
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