Did anyone else get this email from Google? It sounds good. It is being rolled out in the USA on mobile with plans to expand to other countries over the coming months.
Turn browsers into buyers with user-generated images in product reviews
A recent study shows that Google is the first place that consumers go to research a purchase that they plan to make, whether online or in-store1. But beyond turning to search to read product reviews, shoppers are increasingly becoming inspired by images, with 50% of digital shoppers saying that images helped them decide what to buy.
To help shoppers feel more confident in their purchases, we're introducing user-generated images in product reviews on Google Shopping. You can now include review images in your product review feeds, allowing customers to visually connect with what you sell through pictures of previous customers wearing or using your products.
I see two issues with BPers taking part in this. One is that BP doesn't currently have the functionality to collect reviewer images, something I get asked a lot by customers who do seem to want to share their pics when they post a review. So I am guessing that functionality would need to be added first (which would be great regardless) and then the google product feed would need to be tweaked to accept the images, which is probably the easy bit.
This could be big for us all and great for sales. A lot of people don't consider images enough in their SEO plans but images are massively important and helpful in getting seen on Google and therefore more sales.
Do enough of us have interest in this for BP to consider it?