Google checkout service

In another move towards blurring the line between online advertising and e-commerce, Google’s newly launched Checkout service will let consumers link a credit card to their Google account. Then, participating advertisers who add a Google shopping cart to their search ads can turn their ads directly into sales without requiring people to enter their credit card information again (one of the big reasons people abandon shopping carts online). This is no different than other universal online payment services tried by everyone from Microsoft to Yahoo—if you own the customer, why not own his wallet too? Although, this apparently is not the rumored GBuy service that is aimed more squarely at PayPal (i.e., it cannot be used for person-to-person transactions, be linked to a bank account, or to store value from another account).

But for the same reason merchants did not want to help Microsoft become a bank a few years ago through its Passport identity system, they might balk at helping Google become even more entrenched with consumers. After all, for most retailers the financial transaction is the only relationship they really have with consumers. And their transaction data is most certainly their most valuable data. Why would they give all that up to Google?

The answer is: only if they have no other choice. My prediction is that major brands and most big retailers are not going to bite. They would rather give up sales than lose that point of contact with the consumer.

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Tags: - Ecommerce general, Ecommerce-general, Shopping cart, Shopping cart

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