How Google AI is helping retailers this holiday season

As retailers brace for a particularly challenging holiday season due to a compressed shopping timeline, Google is stepping in with several new AI-powered features designed to help businesses navigate this critical period. With Black Friday falling later than usual and only 26 days between Thanksgiving and Christmas (compared to 32 days in 2023), retailers are under increased pressure to optimise their marketing and inventory strategies.

To address these challenges, Google has introduced updates to its Merchant Center and Google Ads platforms, aimed at helping businesses stay agile and make data-driven decisions quickly.

Key announcements from Google's Think Retail event

At its annual Think Retail event, Google unveiled a suite of new tools for its advertising and merchant platforms. These updates are focused on leveraging AI to provide actionable insights, automate routine tasks, and streamline operations for retailers. Here’s a closer look at what Google announced:

1. AI-generated shopping trend insights

Google has introduced AI-generated shopping trend insights, allowing retailers to stay ahead of consumer behaviour changes during the shortened holiday season. This feature analyses real-time data to identify emerging trends, helping businesses adjust their inventory, pricing, and promotions accordingly.

By understanding what products are trending, retailers can optimise their stock levels and ensure they have the right items available at the right time. This could be particularly useful as the holiday shopping window shrinks, enabling companies to respond quickly to shifts in demand.

2. Automated performance summaries for merchants

To save time and effort, Google is offering automated performance summaries for merchants. These summaries provide quick insights into campaign performance, helping businesses identify issues or opportunities without having to manually dig through data.

This feature is designed to give retailers a high-level overview of what’s working and what’s not, enabling them to make informed decisions faster. The ability to quickly spot and address performance gaps will be crucial during the compressed holiday season when every day counts.

3. Custom data report generation using natural language prompts

Google is making it easier for retailers to generate custom data reports by using natural language prompts. This means that instead of needing technical expertise to pull specific data, merchants can simply ask Google for the insights they need in plain language.

For example, a retailer could ask, "What were my best-selling products last week?" and Google’s AI will generate a report with that information. This feature lowers the barrier to accessing valuable data, allowing businesses of all sizes to make data-driven decisions.

4. Streamlined local inventory data syncing

For brick-and-mortar stores, keeping local inventory data up-to-date across online platforms is critical for capturing nearby customers. Google’s updated tools streamline the process of syncing local inventory data, ensuring that retailers can provide accurate product availability information to online shoppers.

This feature can help retailers avoid lost sales due to outdated inventory data, as it allows consumers to see what’s in stock at nearby locations in real-time. Accurate local inventory data is especially important during the holiday rush when consumers are more likely to search for products available for immediate pickup.

5. New customer acquisition goals for ad campaigns

Google is also enhancing its ad campaign tools by introducing new customer acquisition goals. These goals allow businesses to tailor their ad strategies to attract new customers specifically, rather than simply driving overall traffic.

By focusing on acquiring new customers, retailers can maximise their growth potential during the holiday season. Google’s tools help businesses identify and target potential customers who are likely to make a purchase, optimising ad spend for higher returns.

6. Profit-based optimisation for campaigns (in beta)

Another powerful feature introduced by Google is profit-based optimisation for certain campaign types, currently in beta testing. Unlike traditional ad optimisation, which focuses on revenue, this new tool allows businesses to optimise campaigns based on profit margins.

This can be a game-changer for retailers who want to focus not just on driving sales but on maximising profitability. By using AI to identify which products or promotions yield the highest profit, businesses can allocate their marketing budget more effectively.

Why retailers should pay attention to these updates?

The shortened 2024 holiday shopping season poses unique challenges for retailers. With only 26 days between Black Friday and Christmas, businesses must be more strategic and agile than ever before. Some analysts predict that this compressed timeline will lead to earlier and more aggressive promotional activity, as retailers try to capture consumer spending before the window closes.

Google’s new AI-powered tools are designed to help businesses adapt to this rapidly changing landscape by providing real-time data insights, automating key tasks, and enabling more precise targeting of customers. However, while these updates offer exciting potential, it remains to be seen how effective they will be in practice.

How these tools can benefit retailers?

For retailers and advertisers, Google’s new features offer several advantages during the holiday season:

• Real-time trend data: Retailers can stay ahead of shifting consumer preferences by accessing up-to-date shopping trends.
• Automated insights: Performance summaries and custom data reports allow businesses to quickly identify issues or opportunities, saving time and resources.
• Easier local inventory management: Syncing local inventory data helps retailers provide accurate product availability information to nearby shoppers.
• Targeted customer acquisition: New ad campaign goals enable businesses to focus on attracting new customers, and driving growth.
• Profit-based optimisation: Businesses can optimise their campaigns for profitability, rather than just revenue, improving overall financial performance.

Benefits for consumers

Consumers are also likely to benefit from these updates, as retailers will be better equipped to meet their needs:

• Accurate product availability: Shoppers will have access to more accurate information about product availability, especially for local stores.
• Better-timed promotions: Retailers will be able to offer more relevant and timely promotions, enhancing the shopping experience.
• Improved inventory management: With up-to-date inventory data across online and offline channels, consumers can expect a smoother, more reliable shopping experience.

Looking ahead: Can Google compete in E-Commerce?

These updates come as Google faces increasing competition in the e-commerce space, particularly from platforms like Amazon and social media sites. While Google remains a key player in online shopping, the landscape is becoming increasingly crowded.

By leveraging AI and enhancing its advertising and merchant tools, Google aims to solidify its position as a go-to platform for both retailers and consumers. However, whether these new features will drive revenue during the shortened shopping season remains to be seen.

The success of these tools will likely depend on how effectively businesses can integrate them into their operations and how well they adapt to the fast-paced demands of the holiday shopping period.