Recode: Google to Expand Shopping Express

Jason Del Ray, reporting for Recode:

Though Google over the years had experimented with letting consumers buy goods with the help of services such as Google Wallet and Google Checkout, it accelerated this strategy in 2013 with Shopping Express. The service lets shoppers buy things from local retail stores through Google, which then delivers them to consumers from the physical retail store on the same or next day.

A source familiar with the company’s plans says senior Google execs have set aside as much as $500 million to expand the service nationwide. Google declined to comment on the size of the investment but made no secret of its ambition.

The most striking thing about Google to me is that they’re taking on almost every single consumer-focused major company in tech. Every one. Android against iOS. Chrome and Docs against Windows and Office. Google Plus against Facebook. Google has no allies or partners for anything other than the manufacturing of Android and Chrome OS devices, but even there, they have a contentious relationship with Samsung, the one hardware company that’s making any actual money from Android.

Grand ambition or hubris? — that’s the question.

★ Monday, 7 July 2014