‘Tis the season to go shopping

Decorations are starting to go up, Mariah’s singing on the airwaves, and Thanksgiving turkey is so close you can almost taste it – the holiday season is HERE, y’all.

And you know what that means. The holiday shopping season is also here. Over the next two months, nearly 217 million Americans will spend an estimated $178+ billion on gifts for friends and loved ones.

Enter: Google, the place where 46% of all product searches start, which on Tuesday announced a series of new shopping features that will be rolling out just in time for the holidays.

• The tech giant is launching its own version of Honey, Rakuten, Capital One Shopping, etc. After this new coupon-clipping feature goes live, when using Search, promos and coupons will automatically appear to users via a new promotion badge. Once a user finds a deal they like, they’ll be able to clip the promo codes when making a purchase (no manual entry required).
• "Compare" and price insights are coming to Search. Google’s price insights feature, which helps shoppers browse prices and make better buying decisions, will be moving from existing solely on its “Shopping” tab to be included in Search as well.

📸🔍 Big picture: Google’s focus on improving its online shopping experience comes at a time when, like Mario on a banana peel, its dominance of search may be slipping. More product searches now start on Amazon (54%), and the wildly-popular TikTok is working to augment both its search and e-commerce functionalities.