Will Google penalise shared databases between websites?

Selected answers from the Dumb SEO Questions Facebook & G+ community.

• 
  Samantha Catlow: I have a live e-com site and I'm beginning to plan a second e-com site with the same products but targeted towards a different market segment. I am considering developing a shared database between the two sites however I am concerned that google may penalise the sites. The product data, images and specifications will be the same, but there will be unique page content.
  1. Will Google penalise shared databases between websites?
  2. Does Google penalise shared product data from one supplier’s website to another, with copying of text, specifications, videos and images? (It is difficult to have unique product data / specifications)
  3. Alternatively I can develop 2 separate sites with separate databases, will this be a safer & Google SEO friendlier option?
  Thanks in advance!
• 
  Tim Capper: Hi Samantha
  
  E-comm sites that sell the same products very often use the exact same manufacturers Copy, Images, Specs.
  
  In this case its all about whose site is better structured, optimised and of course has more authority.
  
  It happens all the time.
  
  However, just because hundreds of sites do it, does not mean it will be good for you.
  
  1) Although targeting a different demographic, you will still be competing against yourself for that product, irrespective of demographic. A Pink Fluffy Giraffe is a pink fluffy giraffe no matter who the end consumer is.
  
  2) Maintaining and building the authority of 2 sites instead of 1, that will again be competing.
  
  
  So, my method would be 1 site.
  
  Even if you are using the same product in a new category, I would be looking at correctly canonicolising the product to the original.
  
  After all they are exactly the same.
• 
  RockandScroll Video SEO: 1. Google doesn't penalize databases
  2. no not if you do it correctly (news articles are shared by many, that is their purpose, news sites are not banned)
  3. doesn't matter how you do it, it is the end result that counts. You don't want to make exact copies of the sites since you then miss out on SEO.
  
  Please read: https://yoast.com/rel-canonical/
  
  A simple solution that would be great for you: change (make appropriate for your targeted keyword) the first and last paragraph of your pages (encapsulated). This technique is termed "optimized content" by Oz da Don who created software to automate this process called Ant Cinderella (that I happen to have) demonstrated here (fast forwarded): https://youtu.be/z69zmsGgWWQ?t=392
  
  Simply make each site unique using different titles, meta tags and unique ; first and last paragraphs and you'd be having two unique sites ranking for different keywords.
  
  If you could share your site url then I could have a closer look to see if you done the first site correctly (what is the point of duplicating a bad site).
  
  Hope this helps, have a nice day
  Eddy Caspers - The Netherlands
• 
  Rob Maas: Serious ? Simply make each site unique using different titles, meta tags and unique ; first and last paragraphs and you'd be having two unique sites ranking for different keywords.
• 
  Rob Maas: PS I am curious what would differentiate the two market segments ?
• 
  Tim Capper: Apparently so +Rob Maas​