Google Maps takes online shopping to the next level

You could shop online, OR you could shop in-store online. Google Maps has done a walk through of a store in America, showing off the potential to have a virtual store where you can shop for your online purchases up and down the real aisles.

The lucky store was Archie McPhee in Seattle, Washington – a self-proclaimed store of weirdness. Founded in 1983, it has everything from candy to moustaches and bits and pieces in between. Thanks to Google Maps and the Street View team, anyone can now take a stroll up and down the aisles of the store, check out the stock and feel the vibe. It’s a typical Seattle store of oddities but it opens up immense potential when it comes to online shopping.

If you’ve ever used Google Maps to search for your local whatever store, you could soon be able to search inside it as well and discover whether it has the section you’re looking for before stopping in. It could even become more detailed than that. There is the potential to be able to not just look inside the store but make purchases through Google Maps by clicking on a product in the aisle of a store you have just decided to visit. It would take online shopping to a whole new level.

Is there any suggestion that this what Google is actually trying to achieve? None what-so-ever, but it would be a comparatively easy thing for Google to do if stores were willing. Hell, Google pretty much mapped the entire built-up earth, so why not offer virtual shopping in a store you can explore through Google Maps?

Via: Laughing Squid

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Damian Francis

Damian Francis has previously edited Australian T3 and F1 Racing magazine and wrote for GQ Australia and Men’s Health. Unlike Nick and Trev, he has no kids, no mortgage and no wife, but lives happily on Sydney’s North Shore with his girlfriend.