NearSt links with Cybertill to boost retail’s recovery

As part of a new collaboration between NearSt and Cybertill, over a thousand brick-and-mortar stores will be given a boost through Google-backed retail technology.

Founded in 2015, NearSt’s software seeks to bring customers into bricks and mortar stores by showing the products stocked in local shops to people searching online nearby – making it more convenient to buy items locally than online.

“The surge in ecommerce sales has been widely acknowledged, but what’s been largely overlooked is the even bigger surge in shoppers going online to hunt out products on nearby high streets,” said Nick Brackenbury, CEO and Co-Founder NearSt

“We saw a seven-fold jump in local product searches in places like Google 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. 

“This emerging consumer behaviour of searching and discovering products online to buy in nearby physical stores presents an exciting new opportunity for small and large retailers alike.” 

He continued: “And thanks to Cybertill it makes it even simpler now. Everything works using the barcodes, stock levels, and pricing already stored in your existing EPoS system – so you literally set it and forget it. 

“Pulling data automatically every few minutes NearSt automatically creates high quality product listings, so you don’t need to spend dozens of hours manually entering product details.” 

Now integrated into Cybertill’s RetailStore EPoS platform, this means that shops can connect their entire inventory to Google search in real time – and switch it on and off at the touch of a button.

Ian Tomlinson, CEO Cybertill, added: “Offering NearSt to the Cybertill network comes from a shared belief that there is a lot to win for physical stores in the quickly changing world of retail. Allowing shops to show their products to locals in Google is the perfect way to tap into the rapidly growing trend among shoppers of using Google to look for products in nearby stores.”