Lightspeed and Google partner to boost small businesses online

Montreal software firm Lightspeed POS Inc. has struck a global retail partnership with Alphabet Inc.’s Google to allow small businesses — many of which were devastated by pandemic closures — to advertise to local shoppers looking for alternatives to e-commerce giants.

After more than a year of pandemic lockdowns that forced retailers and small merchants to close their doors, Lightspeed — which provides cloud-based point-of-sale services for the retail, hospitality and golf industries — is betting that customers are shifting their buying habits online but still want to support local merchants.

The partnership, which will allow Lightspeed to embed Google’s advertising tools directly into its commerce platform, is aimed at attracting customers searching for products online, but unsure of how to conveniently view stock at nearby small merchants.

Retailers will be able to post local inventory ads on Google via the Lightspeed platform, pay to host marketing campaigns using Google’s artificial intelligence software, and manage business information listings on the search engine.

“When you put those three things together, you put the independent retailer on a much more equal footing than much larger stores and brands, and it gives them a real ability to compete with Amazon,” said founder and chief executive Dax Dasilva in a phone interview. Google has seen searches for local businesses spike 80 per cent year-over-year, and inquiries on product inventory at nearby small merchants — “who has gym equipment in stock,” for example — have surged by 8,000 per cent, the company said.

Dasilva said that the partnership has been in development for two years as they ran a pilot project to test the offering with small businesses on Lightspeed’s platform. A diving equipment retailer and scuba school in the Netherlands posted local ads through the program and saw their online traffic increase 24 per cent in the first month, in-store visitors rose by 48 per cent, and the average revenue by transaction jump 50 per cent, he said.