The way people shop online changes fast. How you find and buy things today is different from last year, or even a few months ago. You might be searching, scrolling, streaming and shopping all at once – and merchants, marketplaces and comparison sites are constantly innovating to help people find the right products and services. This not only drives new ways for people to find the things they want, it generates crucial economic growth.
In Europe, one of the ways we support retailers is through Comparison Shopping Services (CSSs). These are websites that gather offers from online stores and show them to shoppers. When you find something you like, the CSS sends you to the retailer’s website to make your purchase.
A system that’s working for shoppers and sellers
In 2017, following a decision from the European Commission, Google made changes that enabled all CSSs in Europe to display ads in a dedicated unit on the Google search results page. Google’s own CSS, Google Shopping, competes on the same terms as other CSSs to place shopping ads in this unit.
The Commission has monitored these changes from the start and today, more than 700 CSS groups place ads on Google, helping their retail partners connect with customers and winning billions of clicks. This demonstrates that this fair system is working, indeed, if it did not, the European Commission would have taken action.