By Doug Stephens<\/p>\n

If you use Google maps, then you\u2019re probably familiar with Street View.\u00a0 As the name suggests, Street View allows users to literally fly down to street level and have a 360-degree look around.<\/a><\/p>\n

In April of this year Google began expanding the concept to include 360-degree photography of interior business<\/strong><\/a> spaces within Street View functionality.\u00a0 Now the program is officially rolling out in Australia, Japan, the U.S., and New Zealand and is focusing exclusively on small businesses including restaurants, bars and retail stores. Businesses who want to have their location photographed by a \u201cGoogle-trusted\u201d photographer have to apply.<\/p>\n

This is about more than pretty pictures<\/strong><\/p>\n

According to Google, the idea behind shooting interiors is to provide potential customers with immersive imagery that would simply make them more comfortable with deciding to visit businesses.\u00a0 While that is undoubtedly one outcome, I think there\u2019s either more to this than Google is admitting to at the moment.\u00a0 Or it could be that they are missing out on a much larger opportunity.\u00a0 Given Google\u2019s savvy, I tend to think it\u2019s the former.<\/p>\n

The opportunity lies in the astounding fact that almost half of all small retailers in North America do not have a website<\/strong> of any kind. \u00a0Those that do often have something that looks like a glorified yellow pages ad \u2013static and outdated.\u00a0 It\u2019s a segment of the market that is woefully lacking in offering consumers any degree of web-based experience.<\/p>\n

What Street View Interiors offers is the core of web experience that begins to make a business’ Google Place page feel a lot more like a decent website.\u00a0 My bet would be that that\u2019s exactly<\/em> what Google wants business owners to begin to regard their Places page as \u2013 their website.\u00a0 A fully baked Places page now can contain reviews, maps, directions and telephone numbers, offers and an immersive 360-degree tour of the location and surrounding area.\u00a0 Add in applications like Google Checkout<\/strong><\/a>, and you have a fully functioning website with<\/em> e-commerce capability \u2013 a quantum leap for the average small retailer.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m Seen Therefore I am<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

Small retailers have never really excelled at e-commerce.\u00a0 The reason in most cases is quite simple. Many buyers feel that there\u2019s a risk in ordering something from some hole in the wall store they\u2019ve never heard of. Without a well-known store brand name to rely on, most consumers aren\u2019t willing to chance it.\u00a0 It\u2019s been a perennial problem for small retailers.<\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

Through Street View\u2019s interior shots, would-be consumers can at least confirm that the store in fact exists, lending a significant sense of pre-buy confidence.\u00a0 If the store also happens to be well kept, stocked and merchandised (at least at the time it was photographed), it might just seal the deal.<\/p>\n

In what has become the ultimate game of online chess, my guess is that Google is thinking at least a few moves ahead.\u00a0 In this case, the strategy as I see it is for Google Places to become the de facto home page and ecommerce portal for millions of small businesses worldwide \u2013 a massive opportunity, if they can tap it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Doug Stephens If you use Google maps, then you\u2019re probably familiar with Street View.\u00a0 As the name suggests, Street View allows users to literally fly [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,1],"tags":[172,183,149,24,17,184,185],"class_list":["post-1535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","category-uncategorized","tag-doug-stephens","tag-e-commerce","tag-google","tag-retail","tag-small-business","tag-street-view","tag-websites"],"yoast_head":"\n