Google India launches ‘Google Shopping’, available via Search, Lens

Google on Thursday announced the roll-out of its shopping hub to Indian users. The new section is said to deliver personalised shopping recommendations, offers, reviews and prices from different retailers. Users can also post queries in Hindi and English.

The new experience is available across Google products including a Shopping Home Page, Google Search (Shopping tab) and Google Lens. Users with entry-level phones can also access the shopping page.

Google's new Shopping Homepage offers multiple product categories across thousands of retailers. The new shopping hub also has features like price drops and collection of the most popular products on Google.

Talking about the launch of the new experience, Surojit Chatterjee, Vice President - Product Management, Google said, "More than 40 million Indians are coming online every year, and search is an integral part of their online journey. From seasoned desktop shoppers to first-time users with entry-level smartphones, we hope this new shopping experience will make finding what people are looking for just a little bit easier."

Google is encouraging retailers to upload and product data on Merchant Centre for shopping advertisements. The company said it has expanded the Merchant Centre to Hindi.

Google Shopping, earlier known as Google Product Search, was launched in 2002. Initially, the section showed product listing from different online retailers and monetised through AdWords. Later, Google started charging merchants for listing their products on the platform.

Last year, Google was fined by European regulators for breaching antitrust rules on its shopping section. After €2.42 billion penalty, Google changed how it displayed search results for products.