What you need to know
- Google Chrome is gaining a host of new shopping features that are designed to help users identify good deals and track their prices as well.
- Google also unveiled a dedicated deals hub on Search where users can easily find products on sale across the web.
- The browser’s price insights feature will also help users make informed decisions while making purchases, as it will show a product’s typical price range and history graph for up to the last 90 days.
- You can also configure the browser to send you instant alerts via email or push notifications when the price of a particular product drops.
Black Friday is right before us, so is the festive season, and it is usually during this time when most (if not all) people go ham shopping for friends and family. While most products are heavily discounted, at times, the process of sourcing for these deals can prove to be a daunting task (especially for non-technical users).
Google has seemingly identified this gap and is bringing several new shopping-specific features to Google Chrome to bridge it. Right off the bat, Google is unveiling a dedicated deals section on Search. It’ll serve as a one-stop shop for users where they can find products that are on sale and heavily discounted across the web in one convenient location.
“On the deals page, you’ll find promotions and markdowns in top holiday categories, such as apparel, electronics, toys and beauty. They’ll include deals from a variety of merchants, including big-box stores, direct-to-consumer brands, luxury multi-brand retailers, designer labels and local stores.”
Users can scroll through carousels of deals by category. What’s more, you’ll notice that the deals carousels will predominantly feature products you usually like to shop for when signed in to Google. You’ll also see popular stores that have the products you’re looking for on sale.
To access the dedicated deals hub on Google Chrome, simply search for “shop deals.” Alternatively, if you’re looking for a specific product and don’t want to cross through every category, you can incorporate the specific category in the search to further narrow down the results. For instance, “shop sneaker deals.”
Improvements coming to the Price Insights feature
Next, Google is enhancing the price insights feature (which is already available on Search to Google Chrome desktop users). According to the company, users are faced with a lot of uncertainty when making purchases. Many users fear that the price of the product might drop further after making the purchase.
The new improvements to the price insights feature will help users make an informed decision instantly. The Chrome address bar will now feature a “Shopping insights” label, which, when clicked on, shows the item’s typical price range and history graph for up to the last 90 days.
Get instant price drop alerts
Finally, Google is making the process of setting price drop alerts on Search and Chrome easier. You can tap on the bell icon next to a product you’d like to buy but simply can’t since you’re looking to get it at a lower price. According to Google, you’ll instantly get an email and push notifications once the price of this particular product drops from retailers across the web.
What’s more, Google is also making it easier for shoppers to bookmark products in a new shopping list folder in Chrome on desktop. They can also get price tracking updates at this point if they are available.
Are there any other alternatives?
Luckily, other browsers like Microsoft Edge have also made the shopping experience a tad easier for users. It ships a neat tool that allows shoppers to track the price history of a particular over time, which in turn allows them to make an informed decision after determining whether or not it’s a worthwhile discount.
Microsoft recently doubled down on enhancing this experience by incorporating AI capabilities, including the ability for Bing to automatically generate tailored buying guides for categories of products that you might be looking for.
Will you leverage the new Chrome features to shop this Black Friday and beyond? Let us know in the comments.
