Google's in the retail business again. This time around, it offers a very fashionable same-day delivery service in the Bay Area for retailers like Target, REI, Whole Foods, L'Occitane, Toys'R'Us and the like. Called Google Shopping Express, it launched just in time for the holiday madness and it sports a gigantic Google logo on the delivery truck.
My guess is that Google, once it figured out that it hasn't exactly figured out demands of the retail market (remember Google boutiques?) decided to get into retail delivery. It's a great way to be first in the same-day delivery market and to create both customer- and retailer-lock in via its monumental data services. Once switching costs become too high, Google can monopolize the demand and expand its delivery market. It's not a bad idea, even if at the first sight it seems as an unlikely one for the Google brand.