Growing Ecommerce – The Retail Growth Podcast

Temu Hits 71% Market Share – Should You Worry? Plus: Google's Coming for Your Landing Pages

• Smarter Ecommerce • Season 4 • Episode 29

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Is the "clash of the titans" coming for your profit margins, and is Google about to take away your website traffic?

In this episode of Growing E-commerce, Mike Ryan and Chris Sharma tackle two massive, existential shifts threatening the traditional online retail playbook.

First, we dive into the aggressive European expansion of Chinese e-commerce giants. While JD.com (Joybuy) and SHEIN are making aggressive moves, Temu is completely taking over. We break down the official monthly active user data, revealing that Temu now commands a 40% overall market share in Europe – including a staggering 71.1% market share in Poland and 44% in Germany.

Are European retailers simply becoming collateral damage in this war of attrition?

Then, we unpack a recently granted Google patent that sounds like a sci-fi nightmare for marketers. The patent outlines a system where Google evaluates your landing page, and if it doesn't meet their qualitative standards, they will generate an AI replacement landing page within the ad ecosystem. We discuss what this means for the loss of your tracking data, zero-click purchases, and the ultimate "PMax-ification" of Google Ads.

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About Smarter Ecommerce (smec):

Smarter Ecommerce (smec) empowers e-commerce brands with AI-driven PPC automation that optimizes for profit and business outcomes while maintaining strategic control.

The platform activates first-party data - profit margins, customer lifetime value, and key business metrics - to automate campaign optimization toward goals like profitability and efficient growth, while detailed campaign insights provide full transparency and enable PPC teams to focus on strategic oversight rather than manual execution.

As a Google Premier Partner and three-time Microsoft Retail Partner of the Year, smec manages over €500 million in ad spend and drives €5B+ in annual e-commerce revenue for 350+ global retail clients including THG, Snipes, REWE, and Intersport.

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Intro: What’s up with JD, Shein, and Temu?

SPEAKER_02

Welcome to another episode of Growing E-Commerce. I'm one of your hosts, Mike Ryan.

SPEAKER_00

My name is Chris.

SPEAKER_02

Our other host. And today we've got some pretty exciting topics lined up for you. We're going to focus on Chinese commerce efforts abroad, something we haven't talked about in a while. So, what's up with JD? What's up with Sheehan? What's up with Timu? Yeah, podcast favorite, Timu. Now you have to stay on the podcast, ladies and exactly. There is no better topic than Timu. No. Well, there's one better topic, and we're going to end with a patent, a pretty juicy patent.

SPEAKER_00

This map this is one of the craziest things I've heard for a long time.

SPEAKER_02

Yes.

SPEAKER_00

I'm not kidding.

SPEAKER_02

I agree with you. It's a Google patent. Um, God bless. There are Google patent watchers. I'm not one of them, but you know, someone shared this online and really appreciate that because it's the the patent is quite really it's juicy.

SPEAKER_00

No clickbait. This is really crazy. This is going down, but yeah, we'll unpack it. What a great episode ahead of us, man. Right? Yeah. I'm excited, Chris. I I love it. Let's start with some some news.

SPEAKER_02

Exactly. So you want to start? I'll kick us off. Chinese commerce, okay? Your favorite topic. My favorite, most hated topic. Yes. My my favorite, least favorite topic. What's going on?

SPEAKER_00

And our friends from the East.

Chinese E-commerce Expansion: Europe is "Dinner"

SPEAKER_02

Um, well, you know, they continue to view Europe, the US, other international markets as well as uh dinner. Growth pot as dinner.

SPEAKER_00

I would call it growth potential, but yeah, I would maybe dinner. I'd call it dinner.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. Um, and you know, the the the situation has become a bit more challenging in the US due to like tariffs and so on. But um so Europe is is quite relevant for them. Yes. And um yeah, I mean, we know that she and Timu they're working really hard to fulfill expand their local kind of fulfillment um and local inventory and get European brands and retailers selling on their platform. They're actually rather scornful of the retailers, but getting brands and manufacturers on the platform and retailers too, if they can they won't say no to to someone being on their platform, I guess. But they're trying to build up inventory and stock. So um in one of the latest moves, Shein has opened um a new center in Barcelona. So we just see that they're serious about it. Yeah, they're serious. It's in it's intensifying. And um Spain is quite an interesting market. I mean, I want to talk about Timo in a sec, but I mean anything you want to add here, Chris?

SPEAKER_00

Uh no, I mean uh what I would like to add is uh to all the the the listeners who are kind of interested in in the German e-commerce market, there were uh basically good news out there, right? That uh the German e-commerce market grew again. It did what? Yeah, it grew. Uh quite substantially. But if you look at the numbers, uh most of the growth is coming from players which uh I'm not too happy about, yeah. Which are the big ones, yeah, from China. Yeah. And I think that the landscape hasn't changed. Um they have massively deep pockets. Uh they can operate on on the loss per conversion for I think quite some time. And uh I I think they're they will see us even more as thinner because the the domestic demand in in China is not as strong as it as used to it used to be, right? So their growth strategy has to be going into new markets. And Europe has become one major market for them. So I think for the for the for the online retailer based in Europe, times will get tougher, unfortunately. So nothing new here, but just busy confirmation, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

I think what hurts most, like it just feels so asymmetrical or so one-sided. Because how often do you really hear about um about brands or retailers from Europe or from the US successfully entering the Chinese market or even wanting to enter that market?

SPEAKER_00

Because they can't. And I mean, and now it it it maybe even gets political. We have to be careful here. But I mean, let's face it, uh China is probably not playing a fair game here because it's one-sided for sure. I mean, and you can look at any industry you want. I mean, look at the car industry. BYD is is is is sucking big time in China. I think they're now 40% year by year drop the first two months. Wow. Um, what they're doing is they have to unload their mess, right? Yeah. Uh on your markets. Europe is one of them. So yeah, you can see it everywhere. I'm not a big fan of it. Um I mean, at the end of the day, I I don't know how much the online retailers, the European online retailers can do here. At the end of the day, it's certainly also about us, the end consumer, right? Yeah. Are you willing to buy this shit?

SPEAKER_02

Let's get it into that, because it seems like people are.

SPEAKER_00

Uh the numbers confirm that, right?

JD's Joybuy Enters the Google Shopping Auction

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. Unfortunately. Yeah. Uh I mean, you know, all is fair and love and war and e-commerce. So let's look at let's move on to um let uh let's do JD first, okay? So JD is um expanding into Europe pretty aggressively with their Joy Buy platform. Um and the media more. Yeah, we must forget this. Yeah, they're acquiring local players, like uh almost as big as it gets, medium or medium. Yeah. Um so that is what it is. But um yeah, I mean JoyBuy as soon as I as I found out that they're launching in Europe, I was like, well, hold on, what's going on here? They must be buying Google Shopping ads because you can't you can't launch in Europe without buying Google Shopping ads. Um that's what we saw with T-Moods, what we've seen with um AliExpress and with others in the past. Even right now, we see uh Trendy Old, which is actually a Turkish e-commerce platform, but they're now also largely owned by China, and they're pushing super hard in advertising in Eastern Europe, probably as a testing ground.

SPEAKER_00

E might be suffering big time. Big time. But I think they feel the pressure here.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, definitely and Allegra, well, we'll get to that.

SPEAKER_00

I mean whereas Allegro numbers are not even that bad, but yeah, we'll let let's let's unpack it.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I mean, so let's talk like um Joy Buy. I had a look at this, and in uh the month of March, which is the most recent data available, um we were finding them as an account level competitor for over six percent of the accounts, which isn't a huge number yet, but it's not nothing either.

SPEAKER_00

It's not nothing, and it there's the trajectory.

SPEAKER_02

Exactly. And I and by the way, I looked at all of because I put I looked at this rather quickly, and this is all of that's six percent of all of the accounts in all of the target countries. Um and they're not active in all the target countries yet. So if we look where they're active, I'll have to filter that in the future. I'm sure there'll be updates. But um, and you know, the the concern is that, like you said, the trajectory, what kind of momentum are they gonna have here? Um, are we gonna end up with Timu 2.0?

SPEAKER_00

There's uh I think a certain probability. And again, uh it I mean at the end of the day, it it's just we we talked about uh that uh in in in detail uh one of our episodes, the CPC, rising CPCs, right? This is this is the the the one dark cloud every retailer sees and and suffers from. Yeah. Another player who probably doesn't care that much about the return on best, especially for new new clients. I mean, there's a certain probability that that CPC inflation will be triggered again by by such dominant players. So it's not, I mean, honestly, it's not good news. No, I don't like it at all.

SPEAKER_02

It's it's a bit of a it's a metaphor. Tell me if it's a stretch metaphor, but I'm thinking of like in the US housing market, you hear about these big institutional investors buying homes. And and although I think they're putting, they're trying to limit that practice now, but it's just not fair. No, it's not fair. And that that's what like we now we see the Google shopping auctions, and there's these battles of titans. Like if JD starts fighting Timu in Europe's e-commerce advertising list, it's not good. It's yeah, and Amazon's in the mix, and you know, no, it's it's ugly suddenly.

SPEAKER_00

And and the crazy thing is, and we talked about that briefly before the before the podcast. It's amazing where, for instance, Timu, in which areas and segments Timu is active in. Yeah. We talk to clients where they think Timu can't be a topic, and then you see they are literally everywhere. And a and and uh an another big player from China uh will lead to probably uh rising CPCs. It it is what it is. And this brings me back, by the way, to to my statement that what what's what's what's what's the way out here? I think certain things you you can't control, that's for sure. But let's be sure that you do your homework.

SPEAKER_01

Yes.

SPEAKER_00

Squeeze everything out of the algorithms. Google Microsoft, let them work as smart as possible for you.

SPEAKER_02

Yes.

SPEAKER_00

Because the environment won't get easier.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

I mean it it's really these details will matter more if these whales just flood the market with shitty products and money. I know.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, like everyone's worried about AI, the pace of change and stuff like that. But I I think this is actually these are the clear and present dangers. Yes. And there's so many, there's so much you know, I I think it's very important that every advertising dollar is prioritized and every product has a advertising plan or priority to it because you're, you know, you're just fighting these wars of attrition in many cases.

SPEAKER_00

1000%. And uh another met uh metaphor, let's maybe it's a stretch, but I I I listened to a great podcast yesterday about the great authors and writers in history, and Nietzsche was one of them. Yeah. What Nietzsche made so special was that literally every sentence had a purpose. Yes. Yeah. I don't want to get emotional about it, but uh everything you do in this environment, you're active now as an e-commerce expert, there has to be a purpose behind every move. Yes. Don't be lazy. Yes, uh, because it won't get easier.

SPEAKER_02

No, because yeah, you know, uh this sadly these kind of pressures can get existential. And like that means at a campaign level, everything you do needs to have a reason for being, a reason to exist.

SPEAKER_00

It needs to be part of that strategy. 1000%. Because my assumption is that these big pla big players with these deep war chests, I think they won't go this last mile. Yeah. Um and again, Google did a lot of stuff right. You can do things now again to outsmart competition. Yes. So anyway, uh, but not no good news here. You have good news from the Chinese e-commerce firm. Um if you're Timu, it's good news.

Temu's Market Share: Analyzing Monthly Active Users

SPEAKER_02

So so uh one thing that I do, so let's talk about monthly active users. Okay. I'm actually a I'm actually a six-monthly active user of Timu. Once every six months, I visit their website, I go to the transparency center where they are required by European regulation to submit certain facts, and I dig up their monthly active users. So that's the kind of active user I am at Timu. Um and yeah, they their latest uh batch of monthly active user data is goes for the second half of 2025. Um so I mean it's interesting. I've done a couple things there. Like sadly, there's some uh due to the when they started reporting, it was already partway through 2024. So it's hard to do uh good year over year reporting yet for them because they their cadence was weird. Uh but we can look at against the previous period and we can see that so in H2 or second half of 2025, overall they grew 12% compared to the previous period. And I mean that I have mixed feelings about that because that is a I I actually think that it's rather flat when you consider that there's a lot of seasonality in the second half of the year. And for Timu levels, and for Timu levels, I so I I mean maybe there's some comfort here, as we'll talk about in a second. They've already captured a lot of market share. So I think at this point it's only natural that the growth starts to diminishing returns. But it's not equal across all markets. So um slower markets include Germany and France, um, which are at like eight and nine percent percent, respectively, and then below that 12% overall average, and then um Italy and Spain are growth markets for them at 16 and 17 percent. And that ties back. We mentioned Sheehan opening up opening up business in Barcelona. Yeah. Um, I think you know, it's a growth market for them too. And so yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, we can true can be true about it. I there there are there are certain markets which are even more interesting, right?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. But hold on, I would also say like Spain and Italy, I actually feel like they are curiously undefended in some ways. Like I think they don't have the clear homegrown incumbents like of a Zolando in Germany. Sure death. Um, for example, or like we uh Allegro in Poland. We mentioned like um Romania. Yeah, exactly. Bowl in in Netherlands. Um like the Zalando of Spain is Zolando.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. So you're right, you're right. Um I've never thought about this. You you're you're point on here. You're point on here. Because uh do you have uh numbers for for Netherlands? Because Netherlands is for me one of the most the most hard markets to crack because you have you have so many big players there. Yeah. Uh Dutch players, which are so good at what they're doing. Do you have numbers uh for for Netherlands?

The Shocking 71% Temu Market Share in Poland

SPEAKER_02

Uh sure. Netherlands saw 9%. So also similar to France. Okay. Yeah, similar to the France. But below below the below amber. But speaking of Poland, so I mentioned that I also calculated market share. Um and and Poland has it just about the worst, um, at least of the of the the highest volume markets. And so what I did here, because I think people have tried to estimate Timu's market share before, and at least what I've seen, it hasn't been to me very convincing. It's like, you know, maybe some similar web data stitched together with something they found on Statista. And um, I'm just not so sure about that. But what we can do here, we've got these monthly active users that I I would be hesitant to fudge that data if I were them because they're they're reporting this to the European governments uh or like to the European Commission. And then we can also take Europe reports um through Eurostat, they have their official numbers on the total amount of e-commerce users. So I think if you if you take Timu's monthly active users and divide that by Europe's data on e-commerce users, you've got a pretty rock solid uh monthly active market share calculation. Um so overall for Europe, drum roll, um that's a 40% market share. And this is to the, you know, Europeans have a choice of where they buy from. And they but they, you know, we talked about the asymmetry, and Europeans have a choice here, but they choose to buy from Timu a lot. And that's why there are these markets where you wouldn't necessarily, you know, you can get in a B2B niche where you think like, is it but Timu has every kind of shit on there. Yeah. And people will buy based on price, they will. So you want me to comment comment on that? Do you want to?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, my comments are I'm out of words. Yeah. But because I mean let yeah, it's now this is not is it's not good. By the way, not not not for the fact that I I don't like Timo in general. I think the the the business model, it seems like works. It works. It works, but it's it's not a fair race, A. Uh and B, again, it's it's asymmetrical, right? What we we I don't know any big brands going going to China.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, and you hear like, you know, I mean it's it's not a retail example, but uh, I mean Starbucks was a huge disaster in China. If stuff Apple has been a disaster in China, yeah. Um that's talk about asymmetry. China has benefited massively from Apple's manufacturing in there, but Apple having China as a m consumer market, yeah, it it just hasn't really worked.

SPEAKER_00

You uh do you want to hear a crazy stat? By the way, I maybe we get get fact-checked here. And I want to disclaim. I don't know if it's true. I read uh a fun fact about Apple. Apple has invested into the Chinese uh economy more than the Marshall Plan volume.

SPEAKER_02

Somehow I knew you were gonna say I believe it.

SPEAKER_00

Can you imagine that?

SPEAKER_02

China is the Marshall, excuse me, Apple is the Marshall Plan.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

No, there's a whole book. There's a whole book. Um, I think it's called Apple in China. And um it it is uh I I to be honest, I've only listened to interviews with the author and read read um some articles and stuff because I don't have time to read a whole book about that. But I am thoroughly convinced by that thesis that Apple built China. But we're a little off topic.

SPEAKER_00

But um Anyway, so 40% bucket share.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

So I have I'm I'm interested in that. Where is Timo? What what what what are what are the the strongest markets for Timo?

SPEAKER_02

Yes. So let's run down um by that these are this is listed, this is in order of their top five like largest markets. Um Germany is their largest single market, and that market share is 44% just about, so it's a bit above the 40%. France, second largest market, also above at 42%. And then um Italy, what do you think about this? 59% market share. Spain, 49%. And we're not this is the last number we'll read off, but I mentioned Poland and the hook for this. Poland, 71.1% market share that Timo has.

SPEAKER_00

Solid work. Yes, you know, yeah, shout out. By the way, this Poland number is somehow somehow interesting because they they they would have a very strong homegrown marketplace with Allegro. Yes. Uh, and I read some numbers that they allegro is doing fine. I think they also project solid growth for 2026.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. But that number is crazy, Mike. Yeah, it's nuts. I mean, I I think I think uh Allegro is at like seven to ten percent projection and and Timu was at eight percent growth in Poland, so they're growing at a similar and I don't know Allegro's market share, but but I still like I uh getting back to this theme of the war of attrition or the clash of the Titans, I mean, if you're any other business in Poland.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah, you have an issue.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, and yeah, you know, I th I think that Allegro takes a a rather non-antagonistic stance um to toward toward other retailers and stuff. They're not trying to be the Amazon of Poland exactly. Um they want to do business, but you know, it it's just yeah.

SPEAKER_00

I I had the chance to talk to to some high-level Allegro guys a couple of years ago. Um seemed to come across really good people, know what they're doing. And uh it's funny, they really cared about about e-commerce as as a as an industry for for for their country. And by the way, Poland is as a country is doing tremendously well.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Macroeconomically, but especially uh the e-commerce uh development there is is crazy. So shout out uh to our Polish friends here.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, definitely. I I don't know what their penetration rate is, but I assume they have a bit of headroom to catch up on a headroom to catch up, the market and yeah, they're doing well.

SPEAKER_00

Uh so but but the 70% market share is just nuts. Um so if this were wasn't enough, man, there's another topic we want to unpack. Yes. We have enough time? I don't know. Yeah, I we well we're let's go for it. Is it not possible or is it necessary at the same time? I don't know. We have been talking about the future of e-commerce for quite quite some for quite some time now. The future of e-commerce, and we were provoking the online retailers here because we stated down the line there will be this zero click event. The purchase will happen within the ad environment. Yes, and your poor online retailer will be not more than a warehouse for Google. Right. There's some it's it's provoking, but it it it it it is what it is. Yes, it it might might happen that way. Now the UCP happened, yes, which is a clear sign of Google doubling down on on that strategy. And another thing happened, or another indication popped up that this zero click event is is a serious thing, and it might become reality very, very soon.

Google's New Patent: AI Landing Page Replacements

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. Um, so let's with that, thank you for setting me up. Let's get into the patent, yeah. So uh January 3rd of last year, this patent was submitted by Google. Um, and props to them because I think on January 3rd of 2024, I was still hung over from New Year's Eve. I I'm not getting younger. Those hangovers, man, they last. But uh they were busy filing a big, big old patent. And then in late January of this year, so just over a year later, uh that patent was granted. Um and so you can go to the patent office and see this. I'm not gonna read the patent number out loud.

SPEAKER_00

It's 12 pages, right? It's quite some or more.

SPEAKER_02

I don't know how many pages it is. It's it's a lot of pages, I think. Um fifteen pages. Yeah. Yeah. So um what this patent is about. Yeah, let's let's finally cut to the chase here. So this patent is called AI generated content page tailored to a specific user. Which, like all patent titles, sucks. And the abstract is even worse. But if you get into actual patent text, you can start to figure out.

SPEAKER_00

It would be a bad headline for an article.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So what this does, this is personalized landing page replacement. So that just to spell out what this means, okay? There is a couple core components here. And one of them is a scoring model. Now we know that Google for years has been scoring landing pages, uh landing page experience. Yes, it's part of the ad rank calculation. Um They are so I don't know if this is a an evolution of that or if it's a completely new model. I'm not quite sure about that. Um but they're going to be scoring your landing pages, and if your landing page doesn't make the cut, um then they will basically vibe code a replacement landing page on the fly uh that the user will be directed to instead. Hold on.

SPEAKER_00

Hold on. Uh two questions which come to my mind. Who decides about the very critical question? Is my landing page going to make the cut? Uh is there I mean, is is this somehow transparent to me? Is this, of course, in the decision power of Google, I assume? Uh and do you know anything about it?

SPEAKER_02

Sure. There's a there's a list of some of the things which I don't think claims to be um comprehensive, but it's the system decides. The system decides. Okay, yes. Um because you have to imagine how amazing this technology is if it can really work like that. They have to let AI kind of hallucinate a landing page into existence in auction time. They have to evaluate your landing page and replace it like it's scary. Yeah, it's insane.

SPEAKER_00

It's scary because this this is, ladies and gents, this is what what what this patent is about. I I had to wrap my my head around it because it's it's it seems so unreal. The system decides whether your landing page is good enough, yes or no. And then basically, kind of in real time, Google creates a new landing page. Yes. Which is going to make the cut. Yeah. Of course, because it's from Google. And Mike, now the second question is that landing page. Well, hold on.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, or yeah. Speak it out.

SPEAKER_00

Is this still in the ad system? Where where's this hosted? Is oh let's get back.

How the System Judges Your Landing Page Quality

SPEAKER_02

Let's let's just backtrack for one sec, because I want to talk about how the system makes decisions, okay? And then we'll get to where the user is going. Um so let's see here. Uh it can make this decision based on the conversion rate associated with your landing page. Okay. Uh historical conversion rate, the project. Historical, historical, yeah. The click-through rate, all right, the balance rate. Um based on a qualitative factor. The qualitative factor being page design quality or content quality. So that's I just want to tease out. That's not quantitative. That is a qualitative, in other words, judgment-based decision. So if they don't like my green on my It wasn't Google Green. There's a hex code for Google Green. Okay. Um, but but there's more like, for example, um you you can like if you don't have a product filter on there, there's a bunch of criteria in here. So if your pay if your landing page doesn't have product filters on there, to them that's unacceptable. And they can replace it with a with their vibe-coded, uh, I shouldn't call vibe code, but their their vibe coded landing page that does have a product filter on it. Yes.

SPEAKER_00

So this so there is there is at least at least a catalogue of criteria to look at. Yeah. Some of those criteria are highly intransparent and you're completely in the hands of Google.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I mean, we don't know. Maybe they'll report on your reasons for replacement. Maybe they will, but in some form.

SPEAKER_00

Anyway, may I come back to this question? Is it the can we call this a landing page? Or what or no, no, it's not a landing page.

SPEAKER_02

In my opinion. Because they're not they're not uh vibe coding on your website, you know? So the the code within the ads ecosystem. This is basically an ad unit. Like the user is more or less a sleeper in the matrix. They click, they they click on this, thinking that they're clicking on a link or an ad that's gonna direct them to your merchant website, but they are in effectively an expanded ad. The landing page is basically part of the ad.

SPEAKER_00

Aaron Powell So it's an ad artifact? Yeah. Uh disguised as the landing page. Yes.

SPEAKER_02

And there's some brand, like you know, they are they're gonna reflect some of your branding, your colors or fonts, maybe. I we'll see tomorrow. But it's not gonna, I don't think it's gonna be a one-to-one clone of your website. It's gonna be a f a facimile, a look like or code.

SPEAKER_00

Better version, hopefully. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

That's what they say, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

But this is very important. So it's it's it's not host, so it's it's not on the website of the client. It's it's within the ads system. Yes. And my question would be that okay, is is this is this web has this this art ads at the part, this guy's this landing page, has this functionality? Can I buy on it? Can I kind of click the ad to card?

Zero-Click Purchases and the Loss of Retailer Tracking Data

SPEAKER_02

Probably, right? Yeah, there are different things that can go on here, but can at least in because they they use the phrase in some like really there's line after line of text that begins with a phrase in some instances. So they're keeping this very open-ended about how it will behave or what criteria can go in. But in some instances, they can complete a purchase on that landing page for sure.

SPEAKER_00

Um ladies and gents, this this is massive. Yes. I uh I'm so the the payden itself, so they are serious about it, of course, and it's massive. And I know that I the story is again great. The average online retailer, if you have problems with your website, don't care. We take we we take care of it. I wonder what Shopify thinks about this, so too. It's the big ones. Yeah. But Because can can you opt out of it? Yeah, we we don't know yet.

SPEAKER_02

Well, we don't like we don't know. And and someone, um Joanna, I have to find out what her last name was. I saw her write a she wrote a great newsletter about this online, and she was saying that there's uh no opt-out in the patent, and that's concerning. I don't really see it that way because um, you know, this is describing this the system behavior, and an opt-out is a is a level above that. Like, you know, you would be in Google Ads and you'd have your opt-in opt-out option. I think that's not really part of the system per se, I would say. But uh like you know how they do this stuff though, they opt-in things by default and so on, and they'll they'll push it as the greatest thing.

SPEAKER_00

It's a it will be the sales narrative, high commerce. By the way, I and let's okay, so we were kind of at least I I was probably kind of very critical here because yeah, again, it's it's a massive forward integration, integrating move by Google. Yeah. But at the end of the day, there might be positives here. Because of course, even if if they are really doing this, if they execute on it, and I I really get this perfect landing page, and my conversion rate gets boosted. I mean, yeah. Down the line, there there are there are silver linings here that this could be good.

SPEAKER_02

That's true. And and like in fairness here, um you know, the the first uh or the the the that phrase in the title, a page tailored to a specific user. So this is personalized. They know things about this person's browsing history and stuff like that. Uh they know they're they know because they have the audience. Audience. Some in in-market symbols uh some s uh losing my word here. Uh some in-market signals and other kinds of signals, things that they know about that user. So um and you know, if if if this is let's say that this is inside of AI mode and there's been a whole conversation there, like they can better reflect that context in this landing page. And that could be an upside of this for sure. So I don't want to just completely um shit all over it, but it's it's a very you know, we we talked about P-Maxification on this podcast before. And you know, like I talk about what is a PMAX because it's a whole category of campaigns, but it just gets broader and broader to like you know, there's the automated bidding, automated targeting, automated creative, automated placements. And automated landing pages. Yeah, if you could if you boil that stuff away, it's like, well, what's left? There's your feed, there's your landing pages, and then there'll even be automated landing pages.

SPEAKER_00

Again, and uh how how can can you differentiate, right? I mean, the the website for so many retailers, that is the core, right? Where you So there there there's there's a lot of things. I mean, we and we have to talk about that in another episode for sure. This this is this is big. This is really big.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I it is. But another thing I want to mention, this could take potentially years to materialize.

SPEAKER_00

Like a chatic commerce, right? It's not happening overnight.

SPEAKER_02

I I feel like there's this contradiction here where like they um they're asking for all these detailed conversational attributes in your feed so that AI has better grounding and it can do because it's it's hard for them to do this, or they would have to read all your landing pages. So on the one hand, they don't want to exert the effort to read your landing pages and they're saying, please do that for us. Give us all the structured data. But on the other hand, they'll say, we're gonna analyze your landing page and just effing replace it. So like this these things to me are contradictory and and I have to think that through in more detail.

Will This Actually Happen? Final Thoughts

SPEAKER_00

But it's big news, and it's certainly uh it it fuels the the hypothesis that this this this in in in chat purchase, the zero-click buy event. Um yeah, Google Google doubles down on that. Yes. By the way, on another note, uh Neo in Matrix had the chance to choose the pill. Yes. I I'm as a as a poor online retailer, I don't even know it. Yeah. Well, yeah, I can't choose it. Is now really the website of the retailer want to buy, or is it?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I I have a lot of questions here. Like if you're the user and you think you visited a website, but you didn't, like, because you what if you want to like go somewhere else in their site navigation? I don't I have questions about this, how this will really work. Google will figure it out. Yeah, and I haven't read all 15 pages to be perfectly honest.

SPEAKER_00

But we should do a follow-up here. Yeah. But certainly big news.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. And and just imagine, by the way, I mean, one last thing. Um since this is not on your web property, you don't have your you're tracking your data. You know, you don't know the browsing behavior, the session data. This is probably the biggest disadvantage.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Uh so yeah. I I'm rather I'm rather negative on this one. Me too.

SPEAKER_02

Okay. So I hope it came across, Cedric. Listen, we ended the episode on a negative note, like we always like to do. Like we always like to do.

SPEAKER_00

Yes. Problems are so much more fun than solutions. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. It's all about solutions. But we don't have a solution here. Well it it might be just a problem for now.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, it's something it's something we have to wait and watch a bit as well. So yeah. But I think it's an interesting one. I hope you thought so too.

SPEAKER_00

Time flies, Mike.

SPEAKER_02

Yep. Let's wrap it up. Always. Thanks, sir. Thank you, sir. It was a pleasure, Chris, and thank you for listening. This uh has been as always a production of Smarter Ecommerce, also known as Mech. To learn more, you can visit Smarter eCommerce.com. And if you enjoyed this conversation, please follow or give us a like, mention us on social media. We really appreciate it. Thanks. We'll see you next time.

SPEAKER_00

See you guys. Bye.