We’ve talked quite a bit lately about how Google is positioning itself as the transactional layer of the web. Travelers can book flights and hotels, order food, and even book appointments with service businesses such as barbershops right from the search results page by clicking business URLs. Aside from your primary website link, other types of quality links are available to your business. This may include a virtual care link for telehealth appointments and another appointment link type.
Now, retailers can add a ‘Place an Order’ link to their Google My Business (now known as Google Business Profile) listing to help customers take action. These links appear on Google Search or Maps.
How can retail brands add the ‘Place an Order’ button?
If you have a single location or fewer than five locations, you can add this link to your business listing yourself. However, multi-location business owners will find that this feature is still in beta and is invite-only.
Image source: Google My Business
Should our retail brand add the ‘Place an Order’ button?
E-commerce adoption has spiked due to COVID-19 and customers are looking for ways to easily, quickly make purchases online. In fact, e-commerce as a percentage of overall retail doubled in March and April 2020 compared to the same period a year prior, according to Mastercard, who stated, “More money was spent online in the U.S. during that period than the last 12 Cyber Mondays combined.”
Further, McKinsey found in a recent survey that nearly 70% of consumers plan to continue buying online for store pickup.
The benefit is clear: getting another link on each of your location’s Business Profile with a prominent call-to-action is going to have an impact and will be another tool to prompt sales.
What else do we need to know about ‘Order Now’ for retail brands?
According to Google’s Local Business Links resource:
Your Business Profile can include 2 types of links that make it easier for customers to learn more about your business. They can also take action directly from your profile on Google Search or Maps. This helps create a more ideal user experience. You can add a single link that helps customers:
- View a menu
- Learn more about COVID-19 related information
- Review a list of services (i.e., telemedicine or virtual)
Or, you can add up to 10 links per category, to help a potential customer take action. The links help customers:
- Book an appointment
- Make a reservation
- Place a food order
- Place a shopping order
- View your food menus
Although Google says you can add up to 10 calls-to-action, this could be confusing for searchers (and you may not have that many options anyway depending on your primary category). We recommend choosing only the top one to three actions to display. You can designate one as the preferred link so that it will display at the top of your Business Profile.
While your ‘Website’ link should point to a Local Page experience with in-depth information about the location, this new feature is clearly transactional. ‘Place an Order’ must point to a page where the customer can actually shop and place an order. For retailers with multiple locations, this means the link must point to a dedicated landing page with the closest business location pre-selected for ordering.
For delivery-only experiences, if the user cannot specify a location in the order flow, the zip code or postal code and brand of the store’s physical location must be pre-selected in the landing page experience.
These are not only requirements for this program but best practices for e-commerce business services in general.
Activating this feature in bulk requires a JSON feed with accurate, up-to-date, and optimized location data. Reach out to your Account Director or contact us at Rio SEO to get started.