Google is doubling down on its efforts to make inroads in the retail market, with its latest planned acquisition aimed at helping brick and mortar businesses list their inventory online.
Pointy is a Dublin, Ireland-based tech startup that specializes in helping businesses easily list and manage their inventory online. The company works with retailers throughout Ireland, as well as in nearly every town and city in the U.S.
“With Pointy, merchants simply plug a small box into their barcode scanner or install the Pointy app on their point of sale system, which surfaces the products that they sell directly into the ‘See what’s in store’ section of their business profile on Google Search,” according to Google’s announcement. “Since we introduced this functionality a few years ago, Pointy has been one of our key partners, helping thousands of local merchants display this data within Google. We’re looking forward to working with Pointy to help even more local retailers bring their product inventory online.”
Pointy already has close ties with Google, having partnered with the search giant over the years, and sees the deal as the next logical step.
“When we started Pointy, our mission was to make things better for local retailers,” reads a blog post on Pointy’s site. “That remains our mission today. All of our services continue to operate as usual. We look forward to building even better services in the future, with the backing of Google’s resources and reach.”
“Today is a big step forward for Pointy, but there is still a very long way to go. We’re as excited about the future as when we first started.”
The terms of the deal were not disclosed but, pending the standard approval process, the deal is expected to close in the coming weeks.