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Customer service sets businesses apart from competitors,” said Jim MacNaughton, president and CEO of MacNaughton Research, a technology-focused research firm.

“As part of the growing number of tech-related companies that offer online services, companies like Google (GOOG), Apple (AAPL) and Yahoo (YHOO) have decided that the best way to compete in the online market is to offer services directly to their customers, rather than to rely on third parties to operate their websites, they would like to take full corporate responsibility for their sales.”

Google is the biggest name in the field of online shopping. It has more than 40% of the search market and 30% of the Internet searches, according to ComScore.

Yahoo offers a few websites with direct ties to its advertisers, such as Yahoo Shopping and Yahoo Autocomplete. But other than that, Yahoo doesn’t offer anything of its own.

In a bid to compete with Google, Amazon is building an online bookstore that will include a number of products. But it isn’t doing much of the shopping itself.

The shift in online shopping comes as retailers are trying to find new revenue streams amid slowing growth. Many retailers are re-examining their business model. While it’s difficult to know for sure whether Google is the reason, some analysts see the company’s increasing dominance of online shopping as a major reason.

“The shift in the shopping behavior of consumers and consumers shopping in general will likely play a major role in the economy going forward,” said Robert W. Baird & Co. analyst Justin Baca.

Google’s goal is to get that shopping done quicker and more conveniently. It launched a store this month in the heart of Silicon Valley, as part of the Google “plex” – a dense cluster of high-tech office space. The store, located in a sleek office building, is a two-level store with more than 800 Google products that can be bought by online shoppers. Google is also opening a store in New York City this month, where it will offer more than 25,000 products at up to 500 locations in the five boroughs of the United States, with plans to eventually expand the footprint to the entire East Coast. In all, Google said it would open more than 4,000 new store locations in 2013. The company has said it will create nearly 5,000 new jobs at Google and other units as it expands, including more than 1,000 as part of the new office in Silicon Valley.

Google and Amazon have become increasingly vocal opponents of antitrust measures and the threat of legal action from governments over online sales. In early November, the two giants accused U.S. regulators of “bias” and “abuse of power” after they were sued by Washington state for not offering discounts on their cloud services in return for data.

The lawsuit came as both companies were expanding into new markets and faced growing pressure to act as Internet giants, with the government and consumer advocates looking for ways to protect the Internet from overregulation. On Tuesday, Amazon’s main search engine, Amazon Go, was announced.

What is really at issue in the Amazon-Google case is not just a legal battle, but a battle over the future of the Internet in general.