Google Offers In-Store Display Technology To Irish SMBs

Running a small business means juggling a host of responsibilities, and creating and running an eCommerce platform might be more than some proprietors can handle.

Google is hoping its Pointy service can ease some of that strain for businesses in Ireland, giving small retailers an online presence to share their offerings and speak to new customers.

Beginning Wednesday (March 10), Pointy from Google said it would offer free Pointy Devices to qualifying small and medium-sized retailers in Ireland to allow them to display in-store goods online.

Pointy, an Irish company purchased by Google last year, connects physical stores with Google, allowing a retailer’s products to appear in local search results and attract shoppers. All retailers need to do is scan their products and those items appear alongside their business profile on Google search results and maps.

According to Google, people want to shop local. More than two-thirds of consumers who shop local say they are making a concerted effort to help out small, local businesses.

“Displaying products on their stores’ Business Profiles will help Irish retailers tap into that sentiment as consumers can see that the products they are searching for online can be bought locally,” Google said in a blog post.

Retailers, meanwhile, are looking for ways to innovate as the COVID-19 pandemic takes its toll. As PYMNTS research discovered last year, 70 percent of small businesses added or enhanced digital services in the opening weeks of the pandemic.

Our study found that 33.4 percent of businesses expanded their order-ahead for delivery features; 36.2 percent added new eCommerce channels during the first 10 weeks of the pandemic; 16.9 percent added order-ahead delivery features for the first time; and 13.9 percent added eCommerce options for the first time.

PYMNTS also conducted research into companies that survived the pandemic and found that nearly 60 percent were generating sales on their websites. Click here to download a complete copy of our Main Street Survivor Study.