Google UKI retail and CPG managing director Sophie Neary says shoppable video; creator-led commerce; and stronger retail data are collapsing the journey from inspiration to purchase.
For retailers preparing for back-to-school, the golden quarter and the growing number of seasonal “mega moments” in between, the ecommerce journey is becoming less linear. Consumers are searching in more conversational ways; discovering products through creators; watching retail content on the living-room TV; and increasingly expecting to buy the moment inspiration strikes.
For Sophie Neary, Google’s UKI managing director for retail and CPG, that shift represents a major commercial opportunity for retailers and FMCG brands.
“We are able to help get consumers from see it, want it, shop it in a way that we’ve never been able to do before,” she says. “YouTube isn’t just where people see your brand; now it is where they also decide to buy it.”
From search box to spoken word
Neary has spent most of her career in online retail, including a stint on the board of Boots, before joining Google two and a half years ago. Today, her team works with retailers and FMCG businesses ranging from ASOS, Debenhams Group and THG to Tesco, Amazon and global consumer giants including Unilever and Haleon.
She has witnessed the transformation of “The Internet” and its impact on retail to a world where AI-powered search is beginning to create new demand. Consumers are increasingly asking longer, more specific and more natural questions.
“The old way of thinking about search was that it was just a place where you would capture consumer intent or capture consumer demand,” explains Neary.
“What’s really incredible about how we’ve reinvented search with AI now is the fact that you can ask search much more natural language questions.”
She says people using AI-driven search modes are asking questions that are around three times longer than traditional typed searches, opening up more opportunities for retailers to respond to nuanced shopper intent.
Neary gives the example of searching for a white linen dress for Cannes: one that covered her knees, had sleeves, was not see-through and suited hot weather. “I would never have typed all of that before into the search box,” she says. “Because I’m speaking, it’s using much more natural language, and because our ad tools are now powered by Google AI, it’s able to understand what I actually want.”
For retailers the implication is clear: search is no longer only about harvesting intent at the bottom of the funnel. She shares: “Google search has really evolved from information to intelligence. As a retailer, it’s evolved from you just being able to take the existing demand, but to also create business as well.”
YouTube becomes shoppable
The other major shift is happening on YouTube. Neary describes the platform as the UK’s largest commercial streaming platform, with 47.8 million adults watching every day on average for 78 minutes. Increasingly, that viewing takes place not only on mobile but also on the connected TV in the living room.
“Fun fact for you: the connected TV in the living room has driven over a billion conversions online in the last year,” she says, noting that the figure is global.
“Before I joined Google, I was on the board of Boots, and I probably would have said, ‘But are people really going to shop from the connected TV?’ And the fact is, yes, they do.”
Google is now making more of YouTube’s surfaces shoppable. Retailers can feed their existing product catalogues into YouTube campaigns, allowing products to appear alongside video content and making it easier for shoppers to click through and buy.
“Before, you would have probably then popped off YouTube and maybe gone to search for the thing that you’ve seen. Now, you can be running a campaign that someone’s watching before a YouTube Short or on a connected TV, and you can click on that content and shop right there and then,” she reveals.
Neary adds that this is “that next level generation” of retail media, enabling brands and retailers to connect with shoppers at the exact moment of inspiration.
Why creators matter
Creator-led commerce is also becoming a bigger part of the retail mix. YouTube introduced its Shopping Affiliate Programme to the UK in July. It enables creators to earn commission when viewers buy products they feature, with early retail interest across categories including beauty, home and fashion. Boots, Debenhams, Etsy, M&S, Next and Wayfair were among the first UK names to sign up.
Neary says creators bring something that conventional brand advertising often cannot – trust and relatability. According to Google research, campaigns that combine 50 per cent brand assets with 50 per cent creator assets can deliver a 15 per cent uplift in conversion compared with campaigns using only brand or only creator assets.
“I don’t think anyone should ever go all creators and do no brand advertising,” she says. “But certainly, you should no longer be doing just solely brand advertising without leveraging the creative ecosystem, because they bring the trust and more of the why.”
For retailers, this means rethinking how products are explained and endorsed. An unboxing video or back-to-school recommendation from a trusted creator can now become a direct sales moment rather than simply an awareness play.
Back-to-school becomes a major retail moment
The timing is particularly relevant as retailers move through the back-to-school period and prepare for peak trading. Neary says back-to-school is starting earlier than many retailers might expect, with seven in 10 parents beginning their shopping in June and 85 per cent starting essentials shopping at the very beginning of the summer holidays.
“Parents want to get ahead of the holidays and don’t want to have to spend all their holidays shopping,” she notes.
She pushes back on the idea that back-to-school is a small seasonal spike. “It’s £1.5bn of retail spend. It’s the second biggest retail moment after the golden quarter, and every retailer has to take it seriously.”
Additionally, retailers are having to manage a calendar that is no longer dominated by one year-end peak. Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Easter, Ramadan and back-to-school all present meaningful commercial opportunities.
“One of the things I did when I arrived at Google is I said nothing is micro. So we changed them from micro moments to mega moments,” she discloses.
And AI is making it easier for retailers, including smaller businesses, to produce creative assets for each of these mega moments, without the costs that would once have made dedicated campaigns challenging.
“Leveraging AI, you can take your core brand assets and then use them and repurpose them so that you really can hit every mega moment at a proper campaign level,” she says. “It’s an incredible democratisation of opportunity for everyone, whether you’re a small retailer or a huge retailer.”
Feed health and data strength
However, Neary warns that retailers will only make the most of these tools if they have the foundations in place. Two areas matter in particular: product feed health and first-party data strength.
Feed health refers to the quality and completeness of a retailer’s product feed, including up-to-date product information, sale messaging, availability and social proof such as reviews. If that data is incomplete, campaigns are less likely to perform well across Google Shopping, Search and YouTube.
Neary explains: “It sounds really boring, but it’s one of those things that fundamentally can be a huge difference to how well your campaigns perform. The stronger your product feed, the better your campaigns will perform.”
Data strength is the second differentiator.
“Google AI will work for everyone, but your data will work for your business objectives,” she says. “That will be a good competitive differentiator for you, meaning that your ads could perform better than one of your competitor retailers, just based on the fact that you have stronger feed health and better data strength alone.”
For retailers, the message is that consumers are no longer moving neatly from inspiration to research to purchase. They may discover a product through a creator; ask a complex question using AI-powered search; see a shoppable video on the TV; and buy from their phone minutes later.
Neary believes that retailers embracing this collapsed journey will be best placed to win any seasonal demand. Those that do not risk ceding the moment to competitors that are ready to meet shoppers wherever inspiration happens.
“You’d sort of have to be a little bit crazy to say, why wouldn’t I want a little bit of that?” Because otherwise the risk is, if you don’t do that, then your competition will,” she concludes.
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