Google Shopping's Stephanie Horton: 'Servicing the customer at every point of the journey is the goal'

Joining Google mid-pandemic to be its global consumer marketing director for commerce wasn’t an obvious next step for Stephanie Horton. Prior, she held roles that were comparatively more fashion-centric, including CMO at Farfetch, chief strategy officer at Alexander Wang and global head of communications for Shopbop. But she was up for a new challenge.

“I’m not really a career architect. Things kind of come my way, and [the draw, for me] is really about the scope and what I can learn, and whether there is something new or innovative there,” Horton said on the latest Glossy Podcast. “[Google] seemed like a great chance for me to be a part of something that was in the building stages -- it was building blocks and really looking for an identity. And there were so many cool things on the table on the product side that I found really interesting and innovative.”

Now a year-and-a-half in, she’s making great progress on bringing the Google Shopping product vision to life and educating consumers on the tools the platform offers. Among them: Google Lens and a new interface that makes it easier for people to “window shop” on Google.

“We want to make Google the place where you start your shopping journey, no matter where you finish,” she said. “We're not a retailer and we're not a marketplace. We're the place that you can go and really compare, find, narrow down, be inspired, and then make your choice.”