Introducing Google Shopping Insights
Inventory preparation is a critical component for retailers heading into Q4. Unfortunately, it can be difficult to gauge inventory demands – all too often retailers will stock too much or too little – putting their business at risk through the holiday shopping season.
Google Shopping Insights, is a new tool designed to help retailers figure out which products or items are popular searches in their cities. The tool reveals search data through heat maps based on products, cities targeted by AdWords, and searches by devices.
The objective of the tool is to help retailers with their inventory planning.
“I’d use it to understand the relative demand for products at the local level,” Nii A. Ahene, COO at CPC Strategy said.
“Products will peak at different times in different cities and if a retailer has a good sense how an establish product line e.g. Legos sell in a particular geo, this is another tool that can help them anticipate where to shift inventory where demand might start to peak.”
“In terms of how it helps from a search standpoint, it becomes another data point to inform geo-targeting modifiers.”
Below is an example of a comparison using the Google Insights tool between the IO Hawk, Self Balancing Scooter from MyProScooter, hoverboard vs. Lego at the national level:
Below is an example of the Google Insights tool comparison on the same products at a regional level in New York:
Below is an example of the Google Insights tool comparison on the same products at a regional level in San Diego:
Although the tool can get pretty granular, we anticipate it will work best to discover major trends and not so much for smaller “niche” items.
According to the announcement, the beta program has a database of 5,000 of the most popular products between April 2014 and September 2015. What retailers should keep in mind is that although the tool is helpful for identifying popular items per location it cannot predict the future – and retailers should still reference their best practices and reporting to determine future demand.
What do you think of the Google Shopping Insights tool? Will you be referencing it this holiday season?
Please comment below.