Widgets are becoming the norm on social networks, blogs, and start pages. Google has just released their version of an ecommerce widget (which they call a gadget) for the iGoogle start page and everywhere else that can take a snippet of code. It was announced on the Google Checkout blog.

Now, this is not what I would classify as an ecommerce gadget. You cannot conduct a transaction, but it is a good indication of what Google has in mind.

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In London, eTail UK kicks off with Search and Analytics day and Dave O having laughs with Elastic Path’s own expert Jason Billingsley. They discuss search marketing strategies and concerns plus Google’s role in ecommerce, global payments and adaption.

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UK etailers and online shoppers now have another means to complete purchases as Google launched its “Checkout” payment system Thursday (April 12th). Hitherto available just to US customers, Google aims to expand its reach and offer some serious competition to eBay’s PayPal which is well established as a market leader in this integrated payment space.

Despite entering the fray relatively late and having a batch of technical foibles to overcome in early days, Google Checkout stands a great chance of keeping even more consumer traffic within the Google sphere of influence. Ergo, shoppers might click on an etailer’s Google AdWord (making Google money in the process) then make payments through the Google check out (again benefiting Google) while also contributing to Google’s ability to cross-reference and aggregate consumer patterns and tastes.

Don’t get me wrong, this baked-in process can certainly build conveniences and efficiencies into the shopping process and, with Google massive corps of engineers, I suspect problems will be sorted out in due process. Further, Google’s deep pockets and cross-market clout will help build confidence against the biggest problem, fraud.

Indeed, many auction users have been approached with all sorts of schemes requiring payments by money order, wire transfer or one-off e-payments via PP or others. By being the pioneer, PayPal caught the brunt of the scammer’s most clever trickery and according to BBC article ” Google unveils UK payments system” PayPal’s challenge could be an advantage for Google,

Google is also trying to take advantage of what could be Paypal’s biggest reputational risk.

As market leader and provider of a fully-integrated payments system - running transactions and transferring money directly between buyers’ and sellers’ bank accounts - Paypal is by far the biggest target for fraudsters and abuse of its service.

Google Checkout, in contrast, works solely as a wrapper for regular credit and debit card transactions, offering to simplify the process by storing card data and shipping information centrally.

Its staff promise that they will “make buyers whole” if they suffer fraud, as well as representing retailers when they face the risk of losing money when a deal goes wrong.

My major concern is how closely Google is looking at purchasing habits and comparing them against your other online activities and profiles. Sure this could result in more relevant ad placements but also a bit of uneasiness from simply too much information floating around Google’s massive databases. What have you purchased that you’d prefer not to be marketed about?

But I like choice (and you probably do too) and Google Checkout is designed to be an option, not an absolute. Again from BBC:

Google’s Obi Felton is also at pains to stress that Google Checkout buttons tend to sit alongside retailers’ other payment methods when it comes time for the customer to pay, rather than trying to supplant them.

Google’s soft-sell means shoppers can choose whichever method they prefer to pay and that ability to choose pleases me.

Observing users is one of the most under-rated means of improving site usability. Today’s eCommerce managers often rely too heavily on technology to help them make decisions. Faceless A/B and multi-variant testing is used to incrementally increase performance of key areas of the ecommerce store such as product pages and checkout procedures. Though valuable tools, they are only as useful as the deployed functionality.

A very simplified scenario.

Curtis, an online retailer marketing manager, decides that the product pages do not have a high enough conversion rate. In keeping with the mantra “test ’til best”, he wants to see if the ‘Add to Cart’ button is the culprit. Perhaps the color of the button has an effect? A simple A/B split test on two colors is done: green vs blue. In this instance they convert at approximately the same rate. Next, he plays-off blue vs yellow, then orange, then purple, etc. Conversion rates remain somewhat consistent across the board. What could be causing the poor conversion rate?

Mel, a competing online retailer, has the same concern, but she takes a different approach. A simple 30 minute observation of 8 different users given $200 dollars of virtual cash to buy anything they want from the store. 4 out of the 8 users found the product they wanted to buy but were distracted by other things on the page - too much merchandising (up-sells, cross-sells, others bought these items, bundle discounts, warranty), in-store inventory lookup, add to wishlist, add to registry, etc. These users simply wanted to add an item to the cart and they verbally expressed frustration because the page had so many choices. Testing the color of the button would never have reveled this.

Why is this on my mind today?

I am in the process of planning a wedding and honeymoon, so my fiance Amy and I are doing a LOT of online research and shopping. I love observing how she tackles tasks and what she likes and dislikes about the online shopping experience.

While looking for flights, cruises, etc. we have been using a number of sites: Airlines, online comparison engines, and even Google (yes, you can look up flights directly in Google - type Vancouver to New York, the result page gives you input fields to enter dates - cool).

Amy has settled on Kayak.com as her travel website of choice. While seeking out airfares, she was thrilled by the auto-complete on the airport input fields. She started to type v-a-n-c and automatically Vancouver (YVR) was show as an option for the input field (by setting YVR as our home aiport, it is defaulted for future visits as well).

Compare this to other sites where it is often a game of hide-and-seek when looking up airport codes - enter the ‘From’ city, new screen with airport code options, select option, click ok, go back to previous screen where all date information has been magically erased and wash-rinse-repeat on the ‘To’ airport - frustrating and time wasting.

This simple bit of Ajax functionality has made Amy loyal to Kayak for all her travel lookups - a case of usability being the primary cause of loyalty. People want ease of use and intuitive behavior.

The next time you want to improve your online store (which should be always), watch people, listen to what they say, observe their facial expressions. By seeing what makes them smile or grin could save you tons of time on faceless testing.

Google has finally release a product/service that is NOT stamped with a ‘beta’ moniker - Google Checkout. I am a fan of Google. I don’t believe they are turning into an evil empire, nor are they taking over the world. However, Google Checkout is a fine bridge to moving beyond monetization via B2B and embracing the wallets of consumers (though they will still be making their money from businesses at this point still).

What is it? (From the horse’s mouth)
“With Google Checkout™ you can quickly and easily buy from stores across the web and track all your orders and shipping in one place.”

How does it work?
Instead of checking out using the merchants regular shopping cart checkout method, buyers have the option to click the ‘Fast checkout through Google’ icon, whisking them away to complete the transaction on Google’s service. The benefit for consumers being they can store all their addresses and credit cards and track all orders in one place, and use them at multiple ecommerce stores. Sound familiar? Microsoft tried it with Passport (though it was primarily for identity management) and we have seen it’s adoption wane.

Why would an online retailer offer such a service?
Well, if you are an AdWords advertiser (and really, if you are serious about online retailing, who isn’t), once you are up and running the Google Checkout badge will be displayed on your AdWords ads. Something I imagine will help your ad stand out (an icon in a land of text).

The kicker - for every $1 you spend on AdWords, you can process $10 in sales for free. For sales that exceed this amount or if you don’t use AdWords, you can process them at a low 2% and $0.20 per transaction.

What are the caveats?
What I am seeing on most vendors’ site is coupons, gift certificates, and gift wrap are not available when using Google Checkout - however, there is an API that allows merchants to tie this functionality into their system. It is dependent on the level or type of integration embarked upon.

What are the downfalls?

1. At first glance it appears you would have to manage orders in two separate systems. If I dissected the API a bit more, I could determine if this is in fact the case.
2. Depending on your user base, more options are not always beneficial.
3. Possible loss of visibility into checkout abandonment points

What about PayPal?
PayPal has a similar offering to Google Checkout, but it is slightly more streamlined. A fully integrated PayPal offering allows users to complete a checkout without ever leaving the merchants website. Will Google Checkout displace PayPal? Not likely. PayPal has a stronghold in the P2P transactions and the bread and butter will remain there for sometime. eBay is not likely to allow sellers to conduct transactions using Google Checkout - why would they?

Where does Elastic Path fit in all of this?
Stay tuned. I am sure we will do a thorough investigation of the most appropriate method of integration and gather feedback from customers on the demand for such a service. Elastic Path ecommerce software is currently fully integrated with PayPal, but few customers utilize the feature - it will be interesting to see how much merchant adoption of ecommerce software with Google Checkout occurs.

Final word
I think this is a great move for Google. This service will be glue for many of their offerings in the future. I think they made a mistake with the branding of it as it theoretically restricts the service to being a vendor to consumer transaction platform. ‘Checkout’ is not a versatile brand in my mind - GBuy is. But, perhaps Google doesn’t have an eye on markets like mobile P2P transactions or offline transactions like PayPal does.

I only assume PayPal will make a move to offline sooner than later based on my experience in the eBay campus store - employees can swipe a card (kind of like an ESSO Speedpass, and the purchase is deducted from their PayPal account - very slick).