哥斯拉vs.摩斯拉：谷歌与亚马逊的电商大战

    显然很多消费者的购物习惯都和我一样。亚马逊现在正处于迅速增长的过程中，并且正在迅速攫取电子商务市场的份额。数据显示，２０１２年亚马逊的净销售额达到３５０亿美元，占整个北美电子商务市场份额的１６%。而且这个数据可能还低估了亚马逊的真正实力。亚马逊的收入登记政策只允许把第三方商家的佣金和运费收入计作收入。如果我们把实际的消费者支出计算进去（就像eBay的毛商品销售额那样），亚马逊的市场份额还会显著升高。

    电子商家们现在在谷歌之外也有了一个非常可靠的广告平台。他们可以通过“亚马逊市场”项目把产品放在亚马逊的网站上销售。目前亚马逊已经通过这些商家获得了数十亿美元的销售额，而且这些第三方销量的增长率要显著快于亚马逊的直销业务。商家一般喜欢去有顾客的地方，而顾客越来越多地扎堆到亚马逊。

    这对谷歌来说是一件不得了的事。谷歌的所有收入几乎都来自广告【排除刚收购的摩托罗拉（Motorola），２０１２年谷歌的４６０亿美元收入中有４４０亿来自广告】，而且其中大多数广告收入又来自于搜索，而广告业务的最大一块蛋糕就是购物。谷歌并没有透露它最大的广告客户都有谁，不过第三方商家通过竞买搜索排名来吸引客户几乎已经成了一项运动。搜索营销管理公司Wordstream最近发布了一份报告，其中的一部分内容如下表所示。这家公司指出，谷歌最大的１０个广告类别中，有４个是与亚马逊存在竞争关系的零售领域，而且谷歌的很多大广告客户本身就是零售商：

    考虑到这些因素，谷歌最近努力改进产品搜索也就不足为怪了。谷歌近日对它的产品搜索结果进行了优化设计，显著地提高了质量。比如你可以试着在谷歌里搜索一下佳能（Canon）的高端相机Canon EOS 7D。

    同时谷歌也宣布了一些新举措，乍一听这似乎对一家搜索公司来说有些不同寻常：

    • 过去几个月里，谷歌在旧金山测试性地推出了一项名叫“谷歌购物快递”的当日快递服务。它在头六个月里免费，而且该服务已经囊括了塔吉特（Target）、Staples、玩具反斗城（Toys-R-Us）和Walgreens等知名零售商家。

    • 谷歌计划通过BufferBox服务在城市的交通便利处设置若干暂存柜，用户可以把自己的包裹寄到那里，然后方便地进行提取。第一批暂存柜刚刚在旧金山投入使用，更多类似的暂存柜可能不久也会投入使用。

    这些举措可不是为了把全球的信息组织起来，而是为了提升通过谷歌购买产品的用户购物体验。谷歌想通过从头至尾地提升用户的购物体验来拉近与亚马逊之间正在迅速扩大的差距，同时保护它与零售商之间价值数十亿美元的广告业务。

    Apparently, lots of consumers are behaving like me. Amazon is on a growth tear and is rapidly gaining share of e-commerce. A quick calculation suggests its $35 billion of 2012 net sales in North America represented a whopping 16% market share of total North American e-commerce. And this probably understates their true position. Amazon's revenue recognition policies allow them to record only the commission and shipping fees on sales by third-party merchants as revenue. If you were to consider the actual consumer spend (comparable to eBay's Gross Merchandise Volume number), then their share would be substantially higher.

    E-commerce merchants now also have a very viable advertising alternative to Google: they can list their products for sale on Amazon through the Amazon Marketplace program. Amazon is currently generating billions of dollars in sales for these merchants, and these third-party sales are growing significantly faster than Amazon's direct business. Merchants typically migrate to where customers are, and the customers increasingly are on Amazon.

    This has to be a very big deal for Google. Virtually all of Google's revenue comes from advertising ($44 of $46 billion in 2012, excluding the Motorola acquisition), and the majority of that comes from search. And possibly their largest advertising category is shopping. Google doesn't release information on their largest advertisers, but it's become a sport for third parties to reverse-engineer the results. Take a look at a recent effort by Wordstream in the chart below. They report that four of Google's largest 10 categories are different segments of retail in which Amazon competes, and that many of Google's largest advertisers are retailers:

    Given this context, it's not surprising that Google has been hard at work on product search. They recently completed a revamp of their product search results and have significantly enhanced its prominence. Check out this search for a Canon EOS 7D, a high-end camera.

    They have also announced new initiatives that at first blush appear atypical for a search company:

    • In the past few months, Google has launched a test of a same-day delivery service calledGoogle Shopping Express in San Francisco. It's free for the first six months, and already includes merchants such as Target, Staples, Toys-R-Us and Walgreens.

    • Through Google BufferBox, Google has plans to place secure boxes in convenient locations throughout a city to which you can have parcels shipped to for easy pickup. Theyjust launched their first location in San Francisco, with many more likely to come.

    These initiatives are not about organizing the world's information, they're about enhancing the shipping experience on products bought through Google. It's part of Google's effort to shore up their start-to-finish shopping experience, trying to bridge their rapidly growing gaps with the hyper-aggressive Amazon and protect their multi-billion dollar advertising business with retailers.