Google and NearSt Partner to Support High Street Retailers

Google and NearSt have partnered to support the UK high street by allowing consumers to see what is available to purchase in their local stores.

NearSt's founders - Max Kreijn and Nick Brackenbury - developed their bespoke NearLive technology to allow local stores to list in-store inventory on fully-automated shop pages on Google, so that locals can browse the shelves remotely.

The technology can link old and new POS systems to extract what NearSt calls 'Real-Time Local Inventory' data.  

NearSt and Google say that nearly a third of Google searches relate to location and over 80 per cent of all retail spending still takes place in physical shops, a statistic backed up by the Office for National Statistics which states that online sales only account for 18% of total retail sales in the UK.

Google said that the live inventory system should help make it "as easy to shop locally as it is online".

Initially, NearST focused on London stores, but since the partnership with Google was announced, they plan to roll out the technology to high streets around the UK over the next year, with a focus on small, independent stores.

 "We are champions of the High Street as a whole but the small shops are the businesses that are able to make the fastest decisions," said NearSt's Nick Brackenbury.

“It gives small retailers the ability to compete effectively in the online world, without needing any of the technical and financial firepower of their online competitors,” Google’s global head of local shopping Nathalie Walton said.

She added, "It gives small retailers the ability to compete effectively in the online world, without needing any of the technical and financial firepower of their online competitors."

In February 2017, NearSt told visitors at Totally DIY & Tools that they had opened up the platform to DIY stores in London.

Source : Insight DIY Team

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