Don't look now: Google Commerce

[dogboy]

Today we're announcing a new initiative to improve our shopping experience over time--so that shoppers (your customers) can easily research purchases, compare different products, their features and prices, and then connect directly with merchants to make their purchase.

First, we are starting to transition Google Product Search in the U.S. to a purely commercial model built on Product Listing Ads. This new product discovery experience will be called Google Shopping and the transition will be complete this fall. We believe that having a commercial relationship with merchants will encourage them to keep their product information fresh and up to date.

Ranking in Google Shopping, when the full transition is complete this fall, will be based on a combination of relevance and bid price--just like Product Listing Ads today. This will give merchants greater control over where their products appear on Google Shopping. Over time they will also have the opportunity to market special offers such as "30% off all refracting telescopes."

In addition, merchants who want to stand out from the crowd can choose to participate in our new Google Trusted Stores program. Google Trusted Stores is a badge for e-commerce sites which gives users background on merchants—whatever their size—including ratings for on-time shipping and customer service. Google stands behind merchants that have earned the Google Trusted Stores badge with a $1,000 lifetime purchase protection guarantee per shopper.

http://googlecommerce.blogspot.com/2012/05/building-better-shopping-experience.html

[hungrygoose]

With products such as a Canon 600d there is no difference so most sites (except greymarket) are selling exactly the same product and basically the same price, same delivery time and same warranty.  It's all going to come down to life time value which locks out new players because they never get or can fund the upfront cost of advertising with a LTV process in place.

[Chunkford]

More hoops people have to jump through just to get listed

Next I suppose is the use of a compulsory, Google owned, ecommerce platform else you can't have access to and be listed in Google Shopping.