Retail technology firm NearSt has partnered with EPoS provider ITS to make available the real-time inventories of more than 1,400 convenience stores to Google search.

Founded in 2015, NearSt’s software intergrates with Google’s My Business Page, Google Shopping and Google Maps to show products stocked in local shops to people searching online nearby.

“People are increasingly getting used to going online even to do the simplest of grocery shops, so this is also the perfect post-pandemic solution for those on the high street wanting to help mitigate this,” said Nick Brackenbury, CEO and co-founder of NearSt.

How to list your shop on Google Maps

The retail technology start-up saw a seven-fold jump in local product searches last year, with 2021 settling on four times the volume of pre-pandemic levels.

Google also reported an 8,000% increase in searches for ‘who has _ in stock’ last year.

The system makes use of the barcodes, stock levels and pricing already stored in shops’ existing EPoS systems.

John Haslam, business development manager at ITS, said: “We believe offering NearSt to the ITS network is the perfect way to tap into the rapidly growing trend among shoppers of using Google to look for products in nearby stores, thus levelling up the playing field between online and physical retail.”

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