Imagine paying rock-bottom prices for entertainment products without having to surf dozens of disparate sites. The vision becomes reality at BestPrices.com – a one-stop shop for more than 3 million entertainment goods including music, movies, games, electronics, and books – all under one well-stocked, convenient, virtual roof. The online retailer delivers favorably priced merchandise directly to U.S. consumers aggregated from a variety of fulfillment sources.

BestPrices consistently maintains a high standard of customer service for millions of transactions. This is one reason the company has enjoyed a healthy 35 percent annual growth over the past five years and has been listed in the Internet Retailer "Top 500 Guide" for five years straight.

The search is over

To capitalize on the e-habits of its growing customer base, BestPrices wanted to offer an easy, trusted and reliable checkout option – Google Checkout. With Checkout, shoppers need only enter a single username and password to securely make an online purchase. According to head of development Shawn Butler, "Google is a trusted third-party name that plays a major role in every visitor's purchasing decision."

	"Incorporating Google Checkout with Google Product Search together is a great idea. The combination allows buyers and sellers to find each other through Google, and online retailers to benefit as a result."

In addition to giving customers a familiar, comfortable checkout option, BestPrices sought to drive more traffic to the site and encourage repeat business. To reach a larger customer base, BestPrices began uploading feeds to Google Product Search, a service that allows BestPrices to display its complete product catalog to customers who are actively searching for products. "We signed up for Google Product Search to help generate traffic and sales leads, but also to get the word to a larger audience that we have an enormous product selection," Butler recalls.

Results-oriented approach

With the combination of Product Search, Checkout and Google AdWords™, BestPrices.com has seen overwhelmingly positive results. According to Butler Product Search now accounts for more than 35 percent of overall sales. "Google Product Search has been very consistent in driving traffic to the site, and a high percentage of that traffic results in sales and repeat business," he says.

Butler is especially enthusiastic about Product Search because it is available at no charge, and the effort required to upload product feeds to Google is minimal. "Google Product Search lets us put more of our budget toward advertising, and that's huge. There just aren't too many sources like this around any more," says Butler.

With Product Search, BestPrices can allow shoppers to compare products and sites without having to do extensive surfing. According to Butler, Google Product Search enables BestPrices to put its products in front of consumers who are actively looking, and makes comparison-shopping easy.

A confidence boost

Product Search works in tandem with Checkout to have a positive effect on traffic and customer acquisition. During Google promotions, Butler says a large number of new customers visited the site. A full 75 percent of the sales processed through Checkout during the first six months of using Google's checkout option were from new customers.

Once visitors land on BestPrices.com, Google Checkout helps solidify purchases. According to Butler, the Google Checkout conversion rate is higher than the organization's standard checkout process, and a significant percentage of customers prefer Checkout to other options. "Our conversion rates through Google Checkout are much higher than we expected," says Butler. "Google fans really love Checkout. The system is easy to use, and it increases consumer confidence."

Good business sense

From a business risk perspective, the BestPrices team relies heavily on the fraud detection capabilities underlying the Google Checkout technology, which measures each transaction against a strict set of risk criteria – keeping loss to a minimum. Checkout promotions that offer coupons and discounts have proven to be a success as well, driving increased volume of new traffic to the site. Also impressive is the fact that transaction fees are non-existent. "We have not paid a single penny in transaction fees for Google Checkout orders," says Butler. "Our margins have increased dramatically."

For BestPrices.com, the combination of Product Search and Checkout has helped the online retailer meet a number of business objectives and bolster the strength of its online marketplace. "Incorporating Google Checkout with Google Product Search together is a great idea. The combination allows buyers and sellers to find each other through Google, and online retailers to benefit as a result," says Butler.