Gagan Ghotra has reported an issue with Google's product panels that could affect e-commerce websites. According to his findings, Google is using product reviews from one site to populate information in product panels without necessarily providing a link to purchase from that site.
A notable example of this issue involves the Australian retailer Catch. In some cases, Google's product panels show reviews from Catch's website for specific products. However, the panel does not include a link to buy the product directly from Catch.
This situation is occurring even for websites that have properly optimized their product information and set up everything correctly for product links to appear in these panels. The issue appears to be widespread, affecting various e-commerce sites.
For online retailers, this means their product reviews are being displayed to inform potential customers, but the traffic and sales may be directed to competitor sites. This raises questions about the functioning of Google's product panel system and its impact on e-commerce competition.
As of now, Google has not issued an official statement regarding this matter.
