Google Shopping is to receive some big upgrades in an attempt from Google to close the gap between itself and Amazon. The search engine will allow retailers to add more information to their shopping search results, such as extra images, video clips and longer descriptions. Christian Santiago, Google's strategic partner development lead, believes that these changes will drive an increase in sales through the feature. Santiago also added that the updates were instigated by brands using 'Shopping', who commented that improvements to their adverts within Google were needed. However, whilst Google is implementing updates to its shopping feature, figures show that it is still struggling to compete with the likes of Amazon. Figures from a recent survey showed that the number of online shoppers starting their journey with Google is now decreasing, down from 34% in 2015, to 28% in 2016. This is compared to Amazon, who saw an 11% rise in the same period, with 55% of shoppers now starting on the site.Â
