ify has a new universal search function.
Google could be facing a new competitor in the shopping market. Shopify has a new feature in their app that allows users to search across all merchants.
It works. You can search for items you have already purchased, merchants that match your search term, as well as products sold by Shopify merchants.
Glen Gabe, for sharing this information with us via Twitter, is a big thanks.
Shopify’s new marketplace. Shopify seems to have changed its mind about whether it wants to be a marketplace. Harley Finkelstein, Shopify’s president, stated that it didn’t intend to become a marketplace in 2021. They are now a marketplace thanks to their new search test.
This test is being released to a small number of users. It is not clear who will be able to access the search feature, its duration, or whether it will ever become available globally. According to Madeline Stone, Business Insider: “Current Shopify employees and ex-workers said that it was not clear whether the company would ever roll out the search feature to a wider audience as internal debate continues over whether the feature would harm merchants.”
Why do we care? Shopify merchants may need to pay to be first in search results. Or, they could start to plan their SEO strategy. App users and shoppers won’t see results from shops on the app. This could limit the number of products shown. This might not be a problem, however, as there are more than 4 million stores on the platform. This may encourage sellers to transfer their stores to the platform from other ecommerce platforms.
Search Engine Land first published the post Shopify tests a new universal search function.