- The coronavirus pandemic has boosted Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) unit Google’s seven-year battle to take on Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) as consumers go online for shopping needs, the New York Times reported.
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- Google announced Thursday that it would waive sales commissions and allow retailers to use third-party payment and order management services instead of the company’s own systems.
- Last year, Google replaced Google Express for Google Shopping and launched a buy button to allow shoppers to use credit cards stored with the company to complete the transaction without leaving the search engine.
- The company also hired Bill Ready, a former executive at PayPal, to be its president of commerce and to compete more successfully with Amazon.
- “We want to make sure selling online is easy and inexpensive,” Ready said in an interview.
Google’s changes will start immediately in the U.S. before being rolled out to other countries this year. - InvestorPlace contributor Dana Blankenhorn noted on July 15 that AMZN stock is now valued at 5 times its sales. “This despite the fact most of the revenue comes from retailing, usually valued at less than 1 times sales. It’s now worth about 40 times last year’s $38.5 billion of operating cash flow. It pays no dividend, nor is it likely to in the foreseeable future.”
