Google’s Delivery Service: Just Another Way to Use Search

Same-day delivery from Web-based outfits like Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) and eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) that sell actual stuff to people who live in actual houses is a natural — if expensive — extension of the business. Free same-day delivery service from high-end department stores in big U.S. cities lasted well into the 1970s before the cost of gasoline killed off the services.

Amazon and eBay both charge for their same-day delivery services: Amazon Prime Fresh costs $299 a year and eBay Now charges $5 per order. The service is available only in a handful of cities so far. Amazon also offers a Local Express, which charges $3.99 per item in 10 U.S. cities. Google’s Shopping Express is available only in San Francisco and is free while the company works out the bugs.

Google’s delivery service lets customers buy goods from more than a dozen businesses in San Francisco and have the goods delivered by the same day. It is not too difficult to see how this fits into Google’s “search is everything” model. Consumers use Google to search for certain items; when the items are found, a merchant with ties to Google’s delivery service pays for a search ad announcing same-day delivery by Google Shopping Express; and so on. It gets Google into the online retail game without really having to sell anything except what the company already sells: search ads.

It’s a pretty shrewd move, and it could work. Google has plenty of cash ($60 billion or so) to spend on working out the kinks before finally deciding if the company can actually make any money (or can lose only a modest amount) with a same-day delivery service.

It’s not so much that Google doesn’t want to be left behind; the company wants to find every possible way it can to monetize its search product. Some will work and some will not, but Google will try every one, and that you can bet on.