Lightspeed, Google Partner to Support Small Businesses

Need to Know 

• Retail POS company Lightspeed is partnering with Google to support small businesses with in-store shopping.
• The new tools from Google integrate directly into the Lightspeed platform and allow retailers to advertise, manage their Google business listing, and allow their products to appear in more places online.
• Montreal-based Lightspeed is a fast-growing point-of-sale provider that has previously partnered with Intuit and Stripe.

Analysis

Retail POS software provider Lightspeed is teaming up with Google to help small businesses increase their in-store shopping revenue. The Montreal-based provider will integrate Google tools directly into the platform to “use a multichannel approach to provide a seamless customer experience online or in a physical store.” 

As in-person shopping slowly begins to increase again and users search, first online, for local businesses carrying certain products, retailers using Lightspeed will benefit from the Google integration. Data from Google shows that searches for local businesses have grown over 80% since last year.

The new Google tools include: 

• Google Local Inventory Ads, which will allow retailers to run ads displaying what’s in stock, directly from the Lightspeed platform;
• Google Smart Shopping Campaigns, which shows users certain products across all platforms and devices, no matter where they’re searching; 
• Google My Business, which offers retailers a Google business listing that they can manage and update directly from the Lightspeed platform. 

“We know that so much of business today starts with a Google search,” said Lightspeed CEO Dax Dasilva in a press release. “By combining forces, Lightspeed and Google are eliminating the pain points that prevent SMBs from effectively promoting their products online to the communities who prefer to shop local, providing them a springboard to simplify and scale their businesses as they prepare for the welcomed return of in-store shopping.” 

“Small and medium-sized businesses have been hit the hardest during the pandemic, but globally we’ve seen a rallying cry to support them,” added Sabrina Geremia, country director for Google Canada. “Customers are shopping both online and in-store and expect a seamless shopping experience between both. As we look towards recovery, this integration with Lightspeed will provide a scalable solution for Lightspeed merchants of all sizes looking to reach customers in this new omnichannel reality.”

Back in 2018, what was once an e-commerce startup teamed up with Intuit and Planday to provide its users with a deep suite of services and apps.

The integration with Google seems to be Lightspeed’s next strategic partnership play since the company partnered with Stripe earlier this year to offer retail and restaurant customers a more streamlined checkout experience. 

Since its IPO in spring 2019, Lightspeed’s stock has doubled and the company now operates in over 100 countries.