But the US online marketplace is already dominated by Amazon, which will surpass $129 billion in marketplace sales this year, or more than 20% of all US retail ecommerce sales. As the Amazon marketplace grows, its advertising offerings are also expanding, contributing to its increasing share of the US digital ad market dominated by the Facebook-Google duopoly.
On the Google Shopping platform, consumers will be able to add items to a universal shopping cart across Google Search, Images and YouTube—and then seamlessly check out using a Google account. At the same time, Google has introduced Discovery ads, which expands its ad offerings across these same channels.
It makes sense for Google to bolster its marketplace to grab a piece of the bustling ecommerce market and keep its ad offerings competitive. Amazon has been successful with retail media because brands value ad space in places where customers are in the shopping mindset.
While Google has some clout in this space, it’s not nearly as powerful as Amazon, according to a January 2019 survey conducted by ecommerce platform Salsify. While 78% of US digital shoppers consider Amazon their favorite place to buy and shop, just 26% said the same about Google or another search engine.