Google Maps Offers Savings for Shoppers

Google Inc. on Tuesday started offering printable discount coupons to local shoppers in a bid to drive online shoppers using its Google Maps service to visit stores.

The world’s top Web search operation is taking advantage of the marketing tool, which is traditionally used by small businesses, to entice U.S. consumers to seek out savings from local retailers such as dry cleaners, pizza restaurants and auto repair shops.

Mountain View, Calif.-based Google has partnered with Valpak Direct Marketing Systems Inc., the top U.S. supplier of coupon advertising, to provide more than 20,000 coupons from current Valpak advertisers when consumers search for relevant stores using Google’s map and local directory service.

Valpak is a unit of privately held Cox Enterprises Inc.

Google also plans to encourage businesses to create their own discount coupons using a simple Web-based template, giving small businesses -- even ones that don’t have their own websites -- an easy way to attract hard-to-reach online shoppers.

“One of the challenges small businesses face today is the lack of an ability to contend with online users,” said Shailesh Rao, Google’s director of local search. “We know it’s a practical fact.... Small businesses rely on coupons,” he said.

When users search for local information on Google Maps, at www.maps.google.com, discount coupons from businesses are displayed on the search results and business listing pages.

The company may expand the program to markets in Europe and Asia in the coming months, Rao said.

The coupons can be printed directly from a computer and redeemed at a neighborhood store or local business. There is no charge to businesses or consumers.

“This answers the general problem that exists in the online world of demonstrating the value of how much real-world traffic online marketing actually drives into stores,” said analyst Greg Sterling of Sterling Market Intelligence in Oakland, who specializes in local Web search.