Google Lens and Google Pay are about to get more helpful for holiday shopping

By Christine Romero-Chan Published November 19, 2024

The holiday season is upon us, and that probably means you’ll be doing a lot of shopping in the coming weeks. Google is doing its part to help make that shopping experience a bit easier, especially if you want to do some in-person shopping rather than online, with some new features hitting Google Lens and Google Pay ahead of the holidays.

According to Google, Google Lens performs about 20 billion visual searches each month, and about 20% of those are shopping-related. Today’s update helps make Lens more useful by giving you insights tailored to the store you are currently in so you can make informed decisions.

How does this work? All you have to do is snap a photo, and then Google Lens can find information on that product, give you similar alternatives that are in stock, determine whether or not the price is competitive, and even bring up reviews from other shoppers.

These new features are made possible by significant advancements in Google’s AI image recognition technology. It’s powered by the Google Shopping Graph’s 45 billion-plus product listings, in-stock inventory data from various retailers, and Google’s Gemini models. Google claims that 72% of Americans use their smartphone while shopping, and more than 50% say that they leave without buying anything because they weren’t sure about making the purchase at that point. Google Lens aims to help shoppers make informed decisions on the spot.

If you want to try this feature out for yourself, it works with beauty products, toys, and electronics at stores that currently share their inventory data with Google. To use it, select the Lens icon in the search bar of the Google app. This is available for both the Android and iOS versions of the app, and it requires sharing location data.

Secondly, Google is also making it easier to pay for your holiday shopping. Earlier in 2024, Google introduced new buy now, pay later options in Google Pay through a partnership with Affirm and Zip. Google is now adding another partner to the list: Afterpay, which will be available soon. Additionally, Klarna is coming in 2025.

Google is also making your information even safer through Google Pay by using virtual cards. These virtual cards already conceal your American Express, Capital One, or Citi card number when you use them for online transactions, reducing the risk of fraud. Now, Google is adding Discover to the list, too.

For merchants, Google is piloting a new service to better identify and detect fraudulent transactions and prevent fraudsters from using stolen information. The service will also unblock legitimate transactions that might get mistaken for fraud.