Google Shoploop Seeks To Rival One Big Part Of Instagram Stories
Google is launching a new shopping social media app called Shoploop. In recent weeks, we heard about Google launching a new social media platform in the new app called Keen. Now we’re hearing about Shoploop. If you’re familiar with social media influencers posting affiliate links to either their posts or to their Instagram stories, this is a similar tech. Check out this video for a quick demonstration: https://youtu.be/IEPeQ4GT3xI.
I am viewing this app as essentially a modern version of shopping networks. So few people watch traditional television today and thus have transitioned to shopping online. Many of those people use Google to search for products and sometimes purchase them through Google‘s shopping tab. Google has had the shopping tab for a long time now, and it seems Shoploop will be an extension of that tab, leveraging Google’s search and indexing abilities. So instead of relying on actual shopping networks to feed you products, users can now follow their favorite influencers who will be reviewing and linking products. If you trust a reviewer, you can simply click the links provided by that influencer and purchase said item through their “store.”
Will it work?
The draw here is the quick nature of these reviews. Lax Poojary, Shoploop General Manager, took to Google’s blog to explain that “All Shoploop videos are shorter than 90 seconds and help you discover new products in an entertaining way.”
It is well documented that Google tends to try things out, experiment, throw things against the wall to see what will stick. As we mentioned at the beginning of this post, they recently announced a social media platform that will rival Pinterest. This platform Shoploop seems to be targeting social media platforms such as Facebook or Instagram who drive a lot of shopping business through the posts of their users and influencers. Will this be something that Google sticks with? Only time will really tell. However, since it seems to be built on the shopping tab that has already existed for a long time and presumably does a lot of business, it might be safe to assume that Google will try to flesh this idea out.
The Issue
Building a social media platform can be an uphill battle, however, as you not only have to onboard influencers to promote the platform, but you also have to have users adopt the platform. There is a reason why successful widespread adopted social media platforms are fairly few and far between. For this to work, Google has to have buy-in from influencers who already use Instagram stories, already presumably have successful funnels for their businesses on other social media platforms.
What is Google going to do in order to pull them into this ecosystem? They’re going to have to offer something that entices those influencers. And then in the end, they have to convince shoppers that this is a place that they can actually find what they’re looking for and that’s better than scrolling through their Instagram feed, clicking a link there, and buying it through Instagram‘s interface. To me, that feels like a tall order. I will be interested to see what Google does with this moving forward.
What do you think? Is this something that would interest you? Or, do you think this is yet another experiment by Google that will show up eventually in the Google graveyard? Let me know in the comments below.