Google is preparing an audacious move into the retailing sector with a new internet search engine under development that could give "bricks and mortar" supermarket groups access to millions of shoppers online.

As part of a service aimed at boosting retailers' existing online offerings, the ever-expanding internet group wants to exploit Google Base, a new product still in testing, as a potential "virtual supermarket".

The idea is to provide those supermarket groups that currently have little or no online presence with a way of accessing new customers, as the growth of online shopping continues apace.

It would also enable the big supermarket retailers to make available information on prices and goods that is not readily found on their websites.

Pooling the details of supermarket products and prices could give these retailers access to millions of users of Google's search engine in each country.

Nikesh Arora, the head of Google's European arm, is known to want to develop Google Base, currently only available in the United States, as a fresh avenue for retailers and other areas such as the online property market.

Google is exploring the retail possibilities of Google Base in the light of research published today that shows that many leading retailers believe they are not being sufficiently competitive online.

According to research by Forrester commissioned by Google, less than half (41 per cent) of retailers that operate both on and offline expressed satisfaction with their e-commerce initiatives. Only 27 per cent argued that co-ordination the offerings was a top priority.

But according to Google, by 2011 some 14 per cent of total European retail sales in France, Germany and the UK will take place online, with e-commerce sales in these three countries growing to €177bn from last year's €37bn.

Google will not check the accuracy of prices or distribute any of the goods, which supermarkets would be able to advertise for free on the search engine.

Instead Google Base would act as a kind of aggregator of prices and products. Consumers would then have to visit each site if they wanted to make a purchase.

A spokeswoman for Google told Times Online that Google Base is currently only available in the United States, but suggested it would be developed more widely in line with the company's "launch then localise" policy.

She said Google had not yet established how it would generate revenues through Google Base and its application to retailing.

She was keen to stress that Google Base will be much more than an online retailing platform

This is the latest move by Google as it tries to diversify its revenue streams away from its traditional reliance on advertising.

Google, which saw its shares plunge last week amid suggestions that its growth was slowing, has already moved - contentiously - into new countries such as China.

And it has embarked on digital book ventures that have caused a storm among authors and traditional publishers.

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