Last Friday we did a posting on Stephanie Tilenius, the new head of e-commerce over at Google (GOOG), and her ambitious plans to improve Google’s e-commerce offerings to compete with the likes of eBay (EBAY) and Amazon (AMZN). Well suffice to say, it didn’t take long to see that both Tilenius and Google mean business in meeting that goal and their latest step involves a tool we’ve discussed many times on Junkie—video.
Google announced that it has launched an ecommerce-specific channel on YouTube geared towards retailers and merchants to highlight its e-commerce services, starting with current demo and instructional videos on Google Checkout and Product Search.
One video featured on the new channel at the moment helps retailers through the process of setting up shipping information and calculating sales taxes as part of staring their Google Checkout account, valuable information for merchants who have struggled with the process up to this point.
While there’s only two videos on the channel right now, it’s only the beginning. Google plans to continuously add more video material to address any and all of the frequently asked questions posed to them by both consumers and retailers. One example would be an upcoming informational piece with recommendations to merchants on how to deal with customer refunds and charge backs.
Google’s ultimate goal with the YouTube channel is to build a video library of reference sources that is not only a benefit to viewers and customers, but also influenced by them as well. Google will rely heavily on user feedback to determine which areas and issues to cover in future videos, giving viewers the ability to dictate, at least to some degree, the type of content that ends up being added to the channel. By making the channel an interactive experience, Google is in a great position to assist its current merchant clients while attracting new ones at the same time.
While Google certainly doesn’t have any issues with name or brand recognition, their ecommerce operations are still basically in the infancy stages. As such, their decision to launch this YouTube channel is a smart one. We’ve touted the benefits of video as part of a solid retail marketing plan in the past and a dedicated YouTube channel was part of our recommendations. Quite simply, adding a visual component to your operations, whether it be aimed at shoppers or merchants, is an invaluable asset. Many retailers and e-commerce sites have embarked on video in some form or another already and Google’s new channel is a great example of incorporating another highly successful website into that overall strategy.
Leave us your thoughts and comments below!
It is about time Google gets their feet wet. I am really looking forward to this, at least we can gaurantee quality from the channel.
Hello, Google I thank its a super idea I love it .
Iam a retailer and Iam working on my website as of now .
thanks you .