Google (GOOGL)’s new cart gives shoppers a reason to return before they’ve bought anything. Its Universal Cart began rolling out Thursday in the U.S. across Search and Gemini. Shoppers can save products from multiple retailers, receive price-drop and restock alerts, compare card benefits through Google Wallet, and find promo codes. They can check out with Google Pay or move items to a merchant’s cart.
We’ve got something new to measure. A Google checkout may produce an order a retailer would otherwise have lost. It may also capture a purchase the customer would have completed directly. Those outcomes have different economics. A rise in orders attributed to Google cannot, by itself, tell you which occurred.
The same distinction applies to promotions. A price-drop notification could convert someone waiting for a discount. It could also train a regular customer to wait. This has me thinking about contribution margin, full-price purchases and repeat purchasing alongside conversions.
I’m wondering whether this experience creates profitable demand or changes where existing demand gets fulfilled.
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