Online retail has never been more critical for small businesses than during this pandemic.  That is why Square and Google have teamed up to reveal a new integration with the Google Merchant Center. Its aim is to support Square’s 1.7 million merchants in the search for new customers via Google’s direct product listings.

Small business merchants that are currently using Square for Retail are able to feature their products along with other e-Commerce retailers of all sizes, expanding their reach and revenue to new online customers. 

Customers can simply click on the listing and buy the product offerings directly from the seller’s store online. 

The Power Of Partnerships

Square has been keen on providing merchants on its platform with useful features, giving consumers a frictionless buying experience as well as increasing revenue for merchants. 

Google’s latest collaboration with Square followed a previous partnership with Shopify in May. With this agreement, Google facilitated how Shopify merchants can get their offerings displayed on Google’s “mobile-first browsing features”.

In addition, Google has developed its shopping platform with partnerships with other key players such as WooCommerce and GoDaddy. Merchants using these sites can easily integrate their products with Google’s many features. 

According to Bloomberg, Square is in the works of providing both checking and savings accounts to small business customers. With the recent update of Square’s app on the Apple iOS software, these accounts will not have monthly service fees, overdraft, or minimum balance fees for their checking accounts. 

A Time To Rebuild

As the pandemic swept the country, crippling the economy amid mandatory lockdowns, many businesses began to falter, while others had to completely close down. 

Now that things are opening up again, the impact of the pandemic continues to linger, making the search for new customers difficult. 

Alyssa Henry, Executive Vice President of Square stated: 

“Our goal is to help sellers reach new customers. Online sales have been a significant revenue driver for sellers of all types and sizes over the past year. We’re looking forward to partnering with Google to unlock even more opportunities for retailers as they look toward the future and begin to rebuild”.

Bill Ready, President of Commerce, Payments & NBU at Google added:

“Google has a natural synergy with platforms like Square as we both work toward supporting a more open commerce ecosystem and empowering retailers of all sizes. Our new integration will help Square for Retail merchants to become discoverable to more people across Google for free, and ultimately give consumers more choice in their shopping journeys”.

The new integration with Google Merchant Center enables Square for Retail sellers to easily feature their product item catalog across Google’s “surfaces” including: Search, Images, the Shopping tab, YouTube, and Maps. It is a simple solution for sellers to attain new customers at no additional cost. Consumers can also take advantage of discovering and supporting independent businesses with ease. 

This first integration move was initiated by Stitch Labs, an operations management platform for scaling brands, that was acquired by Square last year. 

This Is The Future Of Retail

Google has launched numerous AR features that enable customers to see what products look like before they commit to making a purchase. It is also promoting flexible checkout options. Furthermore, it is developing a new experience that helps customers find different ways to purchase products from a specific e-store. 

Today, consumers can purchase items online, on a search, on a video, on maps, or social media. It is completely about consumer choice.