Google Enhances Shopping Experience: Testing ‘Was’ and ‘Usually’ Pricing Labels in Search Results

Google Experiments with Transparent Pricing Labels for Shoppers

In a bid to provide more transparency and value-driven insights for online shoppers, Google is currently testing new pricing labels within its product and shopping search results. The update introduces specific descriptors—namely “was” and “usually”—to accompany product prices, giving users a clearer understanding of whether a current price represents a genuine discount or a standard market rate.

This latest experiment is part of Google’s ongoing effort to refine the e-commerce experience by integrating more granular data into the search engine results pages (SERPs). By highlighting the price history of a product, Google aims to help consumers make more informed purchasing decisions without needing to rely on external price-tracking tools.

Understanding the ‘Was’ and ‘Usually’ Labels

The new labels appear near the price point of a product listing. While Google has not released official documentation on the exact triggers for these labels, the observed behavior suggests the following:

• ‘Was’: This label typically appears when a product is on a temporary sale. It indicates the previous price of the item, allowing the user to see the immediate savings.
• ‘Usually’: This label likely reflects the average or most frequent price the product has held over a specific period. This is particularly useful for identifying ‘fake’ sales where a price is raised shortly before a discount is applied.

A Pattern of Pricing Innovation

This is not the first time Google has toyed with pricing transparency. In previous updates, the search giant has experimented with “lowest price in 30 days” labels, which aimed to provide a benchmark for the best possible deal a user could expect. The introduction of “was” and “usually” labels suggests that Google is expanding its toolkit to provide a more comprehensive financial context for retail items.

Impact on E-commerce and SEO

For merchants and SEO professionals, these changes underscore the importance of accurate structured data. Google relies heavily on Product schema and Offer properties to pull this information. Stores that maintain clean, consistent pricing data and utilize the priceValidUntil property may find their products more likely to feature these enticing labels, potentially increasing click-through rates (CTR) and conversion rates.

As Google continues to evolve the ‘Shopping’ aspect of its search experience, the gap between a traditional search engine and a dedicated shopping platform continues to shrink, making price competitiveness more visible than ever before.