Google is launching a fresh look for Gmail’s “Purchases” tab, giving users a convenient and organized summary of their commerce activity and upcoming package deliveries. The update announced Thursday will collect people’s purchase-related emails from past orders to shipments! all in one easy place, making it simpler for users to stay on top of their online shopping and not want to sift through an overwhelming email inbox.
A Centralized Shopping Hub in Gmail
The new Purchases tab now gives Gmail users a complete view of their shopping experience: past orders, shipping dates, and upcoming deliveries all living together in one place! Gmail already keeps users aware of packages arriving within 24 hours at the top of the inbox, but this is an all-inclusive view of any purchase updates, so they won’t get lost.
Building on Gmail’s Package Tracking Feature
This will build on Gmail’s package tracking, introduced in 2022, which allowed users to keep track of deliveries in their inbox without needing to visit the carrier’s website. By evolving into a shopping hub, Gmail is translating from email client to digital assistant for e-commerce. Google notes the Purchases tab will be especially valuable during high-volume shopping periods. According to PwC’s 2025 holiday outlook, nearly 39% of holiday gift spending is expected to happen between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday, making organized tracking essential.
Global Rollout on Web and Mobile
The Purchases tab is now rolling out to Gmail users with personal Google accounts worldwide, both on web and mobile. This means whether at home or on the go, users can easily check on their orders without searching through dozens of promotional or transactional emails.
Smarter Promotions and Subscription Management
In addition to the Purchases tab, Google is about to make improvements to the Promotions category in Gmail. Google is rolling out a new “most relevant” sorting option and notifications about upcoming offers from users’ favorite brands to help users see deals, updates, and other promotions from the brands that matter most to them. The goal is to make promotion views and updates easier to manage and more tailored.
Gmail also recently launched a subscription management feature, which allows users to see all of their subscription emails, so they can easily unsubscribe from the subscriptions they don’t want anymore. The changes detailed above wave a flag for Google’s effort to provide a smarter, better organized, more user-friendly inbox for shopping and communication.
