This One Chart Shows Why Google Needs A 'Buy' Button

Amazon is facing competition from all sides, but Google has the best shot at dethroning Amazon as the king of online retail. Google has been ramping up its paid product listings and shopping results, but what Google really needs is a "buy now" button on those featured items, which the company is reportedly working on.

Based on Custora data charted for us by BI Intelligence, search is still the main way people find the products they want to buy, as about 40% of e-commerce purchases in November were referred by search engines like Google. If Google didn't have to refer that traffic to another retailer website like Amazon, Google could capture all that precious commerce behavior, which would give a huge boost to its ad business. Google's ad business, by the way, is the company's bread and butter: Ads make up nearly 90% of the company's total annual revenue.