A new trend insight tool gives retailers a better look into trending shopping searches, which can help them to better plan inventory decisions and write product descriptions, says Jeff Harrell, senior director of merchant shopping at Google. For instance, if an athletic wear brand sees that "retro athleisure" is trending, it may choose to promote its '80s-inspired designs and to update the descriptions of those designs to more directly nod to said retro style. "The selection of wording is key," Harrell adds. "Users are attuned to a certain phrase or word."
Google is also introducing artificial intelligence-powered tools that may help level the playing field between mom-and-pop shops with fewer resources and larger retailers. AI-powered summaries on Merchant Center's analytics page will deliver key, digestible insights, like if a certain category of object is selling particularly well, or if customer data indicates that it might be wise to roll out promotional discounts. "All merchants would benefit from it--that's the intent," says Harrell. But small businesses, in particular, "are generally not able to be this agile or have this level [of analysis] without investing a lot into it."
Google Merchant Center will also introduce an AI-powered feature that will allow users to create custom data sets that answer conversational queries. For instance, a children's retailer could ask it to pull a report of the "best-selling educational toys in September."
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