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Google announced this week that the tech giant has enlisted AI-powered payments company Skipify<\/a> to enable shopping and purchasing within Gmail. This means that with participating retailers, customers can now shop directly from their email inbox.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n The new Shoppable Email program unveils up-to-date product information and a fully functional shopping cart directly within the Gmail app. Brands and merchants can join the program by working directly with Skipify and should not need to change their email provider or input any additional coding.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Participating merchants have seen revenue from email marketing, which already offers a high ROI, jump 30% or more. Unsubscribe rates from emails have dropped 50%.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe’re thrilled to be working with the team at Google Gmail to help merchants bring shopping into the inbox for the first time,” says Ryth Martin, CEO and founder of Skipify. “We are in the very early stages of a shift to unlock commerce and payments within and across channels. Skipify is here to help brands drive and capitalize on that shift.”\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n As the COVID-19 pandemic has caused physical stores to struggle, more and more merchants have grown to rely on e-commerce to stay afloat. Google has unveiled a number of initiatives to help merchants during COVID.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Earlier this year, the tech giant ditched merchant fees<\/a> for its Shopping function, allowing merchants to sell for free on Google.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n In response to new customer needs post-pandemic, Google also introduced new functionality to Shopping search results that displays the availability of curbside and in-store pickup<\/a> and launched a video shopping platform called Shoploop<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n