Google LLC is bringing the power of its iconic search engine to online retailers.

The company today announced the general availability of Google Cloud Retail Search, which is a new managed service that gives retailers their own version of the Google Search engine that’s customized for their digital properties.

Google said the idea is to help reduce a costly problem that’s known in the industry as “search abandonment.” The term is similar to the well-known phenomenon of “cart abandonment,” where an online shopper begins a checkout process only to abandon it before paying for the goods. Search abandonment is when a buyer throws in the towel while still searching for products. Google blamed that mainly on bad search results that mean buyers can’t find the products they’re looking for.

Google said search abandonment costs retailers upwards of $300 billion a year, citing data from a recent Harris Poll survey that it commissioned. That poll found the problem is pervasive, with 94% of consumers reporting seeing irrelevant results on a retailer’s website in the last six months. An additional 85% reported having difficulties when searching online for products.

Retailers themselves are keenly aware of the problem. The same survey found that 90% of retail website managers agreed that search abandonment is a costly problem for their company.

Search abandonment equates to missed opportunities too, Google said. The survey found that 53% of shoppers who do find the products they’re looking for will also purchase additional items from the same online store.

Google claims it has the ideal solution to the search abandonment problem with Retail Search. According to the company, Retail Search helps “convert purchase intent at scale.” The service can be integrated with a company’s website and mobile app and relies on Google’s machine learning-powered intelligence to understand exactly what buyers are looking for.

It also leverages Google’s well-known propensity to track individuals across the web, allowing it to come up with personalized results for each shopper. Auto-suggestions, based on people’s web histories, are also a part of the package.

Google Cloud Group Product Manager Srikanth Belwadi said that providing quality search results has always been challenging for retailers that lack expertise and are forced to use simple keyword-based tools. “Google’s semantic understanding of query intent and product Knowledge Graph enables retailers to dramatically improve experiences for customers with learning-based search.”

Retail Search is a part of Google Cloud’s Product Discovery Solutions for Retail suite of services. So it can be combined with tools such as Recommendations AI and Vision Product Search to provide shoppers with more personalized recommendations and even image-based search capabilities, Google said.

“Nothing is more tragic for an online retailer than having a product customers are looking for that can’t be found on their website,” said analyst Holger Mueller of Constellation Research Inc. “Google is uniquely positioned to address the problem, given it’s competence in search. So it is a smart from Google to offer this as a service, as part of it’s vertical retail cloud offering.”

The department store chain Macy’s Inc. has already given Retail Search thumbs up, saying it has seen improved click-through rates and revenue per visit as a result of implementing the new service. “Understanding our customer’s needs and being able to deliver results seamlessly is critical to providing an enjoyable shopping experience,” said Macy’s Director of Product Management Jilberto Soto.

Google said Retail Search is generally available now for all of its customers globally.

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