There’s no doubt that the UK high street has been suffering for a while now, which is why some help from search engine giant, Google can only be good news! For a long time, people have been able to buy products directly from Google Shopping, but now they will also be able to see which products are available at nearby stores.

Google has teamed up with NearSt to help highlight what products are available to people nearby! The technology connects to retailers POS systems to extract product data and show in real time what is stocked and what price it is. This could be a huge boost for retailers and go a long way to stopping people from buying products online that they can pick up just a 5 minute walk away.

Initially, the project has been run in London, but now plans to extend across the UK over the next 12 months. Smaller independent retailers have been highlighted as the targets to start using the technology as they’re typically able to make decisions and implement faster than larger multinationals.

With nearly a 3rd of Google’s search data location based, the implications of such a technology could be massive and help to revitalise the high street, which is sorely needed!