Google said in a blog post yesterday that they are in the process of purchasing Pointy, an Irish startup company in Dublin that has developed a unique approach to improve the e-commerce experience.
Pointy developed a small device, the size of a match box, which can be plugged into a barcode scanner to analyze purchases. That information is then used to estimate inventory levels of stock. Pointy is able to use this data to generate a web page automatically, displaying a store’s products, as well as their availability.
The platform also facilitates the automatic creation of search ads out of product listings. Google could use this to target small online stores by offering them a means to simplify their campaign creation processes.
Pointy claims to have over 15 000 retail customers across the world and the deal was made, according to TC, for about $163 million (£147 million). Pointy says that their platform allows customers’ catalogs to be discovered on Google without customers needing to build a separate e-commerce site.
Google has been in partnership with Pointy since 2018 allowing product listings to be shown on the Knowledge Panels that show up when a user searches for a business. Acquiring this startup business will enhance the Google search engine by allowing it to be more useful for business customers, over larger areas.
Although Google has said that the acquisition should close in the next few weeks, The Irish Times have reported that Pointy will still operate from its offices in Dublin, meaning that for now, it will still be available as a separate product.
The incorporation into Google could mean a decrease in the current price of the Pointy device which retails at $899.
