Google is preparing to go to war with Amazon, at least in terms of shipping services. Amazon Prime has been the undisputed king of quick, reliable, and very cheap shipments in the past few years, but it now looks like Google is ready to move into that market with serious intentions.
The service is called Google Shopping Express, and will ship goods from retailers including Target, Walmart, Walgreens, and Safeway. That still might not be enough to compete with Amazon in terms of selection, but Google's option is set to cost $10 to $15 less than Amazon's $79 per year Prime option.
Google hopes that Shopping Express will help them to develop consumer interest in their other e-commerce services such as Google Wallet and Google Shopping. Shopping Express will in essence become the center of a larger, seamless package of online shopping features that will hopefully allow Google to compete with the juggernaut that is Amazon.
The report comes from Techcrunch, who have also learned that the project is being run by Tom Fallows, an e-commerce product manager at Google. The company also recently acquired Channel Intelligence, an e-commerce technology company, and BufferBox, a shipping and distribution company, lending further credence to the idea that Google is aggressively moving on this initiative.
They need to though, as Amazon is already testing features such as same day shipping in a number of markets. That's not even bringing in the incredible consumer confidence in the brand name, their huge inventory of products, and their proven track record in this line of business. If anyone can compete against that though, it must be Google. If nothing else, it'll be interesting to see who comes out on top.
No launch date for the service or even official confirmation has been provided, but more updates are expected soon.
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