Google Checkout Trends: That’s Weird

Friday, January 11th, 2008 by Jordan McCollum

Google Checkout Trends: That’s Weird

As we come up to the last days of fee-free merchant services from Google Checkout, the Official Google Checkout Blog announced yesterday that they now have Google Checkout Trends. Patterned after Google Trends, GCT shows relative revenues from Google Checkout merchants.

But let me just say: either Google Checkout merchants are atypical (likely) or something is really off here.

Just take a look at the comparison between revenue from the Zune (blue) and the iPod (red):

Just as a reminder, revenue is price x quantity sold (as GCT reminds you when you use it). So, on the day after Thanksgiving, Zune’s relative revenue was $64.65 and the iPod’s was $6.28. Uh huh. Somehow, I just don’t think the announcement of the Zune 2 would be enough to keep the Zune’s revenue that much higher than the iPod’s for nearly a month.

But, like I said, maybe it’s just that Google Checkout merchants are weird. Maybe Microsoft started using them. . . .

Let’s try another, shall we? Here is the iPhone (orange), the Blackberry (red) and the Razr (blue):

Odd. . . You’d think with all those sales, we would be seeing a ton more iPhones than Blackberries.

This data also contravenes the basic laws of economics—that as price increases, demand decreases. There are lots of Blackberries and Razrs out there for less than $400. They may not have the same chic as the iPhone, but they also don’t all come with AT&T. (Can I call the economics police now?)

My favorite part: sales of all of these electronics are down throughout December. I mean, sure, most people like to pick out their own phones, but no MP3 players as gifts? Man, these people are as cheap as I am. Though I could have sworn that comScore reported that consumer electronic sales were up 23% last year. . . .

Wait, who am I kidding? This data is from Google! It must be true!

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15 comments on “Google Checkout Trends: That’s Weird”

GoWFB Says:

January 11th, 2008 at 6:09 pm

confused results. I am not sure about the price filter at the bottom either. What does that do?
הורדת טרוטונים Says:

January 11th, 2008 at 6:55 pm

I don’t know what to do with all the info which G provide us
S.Hamel Says:

January 11th, 2008 at 8:17 pm

I think you got it wrong… the Y scale is not the unit price, it’s the total revenue (and btw, there’s no indication it’s $, or 10$, or 1,000,000$). So you have no clue of the exact price and exact number of unit solds. For iPhone vs Blackberry vs Razr, it makes sense to me that the average revenue for iPhone was 9.29/0.47 for Blackberry = 19.77. Or put simply, iPhone generated 20 times more revenues, on average, than Blackberry. Makes sense to me!

S.Hamel
http://immeria.net
Scott Clark Says:

January 11th, 2008 at 11:34 pm

The trends threshold is so high, I can’t see this very useful. Ebay Research tools are still vastly better, even if you have to pay for them. How many of us care about the iPhone, WII sales? I’d like to know about the sales for more niche-items my clients’ sell.
David Says:

January 12th, 2008 at 12:00 am

This absolutely does not make sense.
Granted, there are no units in the “Y” axis, however, where can you get iPhone via Google check out?
Has Apple Stores adopted Google check out? What about AT&T?

This makes no sense. And by the way, Mr. Hamel, do you actualy believe that in November 2007 the Zune had a revenue 10 times the revenue of the iPod?
Yeah, right!

David
Futon-Matt Says:

January 12th, 2008 at 9:18 am

I use Google checkout at http://www.GoodnightMoonFuton.com and I’ve gotten very few orders through their services. But, they aren’t charging me a fee since I use adwords so I’ll take what I can get.
Dilandau Says:

January 12th, 2008 at 11:33 am

La verdad es que es bastante raro, por eso estará todavía en beta
Ahmed Says:

January 12th, 2008 at 4:29 pm

It’s a pity that those tools does not fuction for Tunisia
Alan Johnson Says:

January 12th, 2008 at 10:46 pm

David, I agree, it’s highly unlikely to say the least that Zoom had 10 times more revenue compared to iPod, it just doesn’t make sense.

Alan Johnson
Nicole Says:

January 13th, 2008 at 8:47 am

A lot of data supplied by Google seems hard to believe. Also a lot of it tends to contradict with data provided by other companies like Yahoo. I really don’t know what to make out of it.
Matt Fritz Says:

January 13th, 2008 at 10:04 pm

I think it has to do with the fact that Google is still in the process of collecting data. The more accumulated data the better the results
Zen Says:

January 14th, 2008 at 5:09 am

It’s a shame they don’t provide country filters. Do they have checkout on other countries?
Mobile guy Says:

January 16th, 2008 at 7:43 am

I wonder if Checkout customers stop buying on January sales at all?
Has everyone who wants a digital camera got one? | Distilled blog Says:

January 21st, 2008 at 5:38 am

[...] Jordan over at Marketing Pilgrim has also written about weird Checkout trends. [...]
Chris Says:

October 24th, 2008 at 1:14 am

Much too complex for my simple mind!

(aka) Weirdo

Chris’s last blog post..Artist pushes the envelope for posties

Marketing Pilgrim