5. Online consumers are vociferous pre-purchase researchers
24% Most likely to Most likely to
of consumers browse browse online NEVER browse
online DAILY for products or DAILY online
services to buy
Vietnam Tanzania
Turkey Uganda
South Korea Nigeria
60% Hong Kong Indonesia
of consumers browse online Thailand Egypt
at least WEEKLY for products Brazil Philippines
or services to buy Saudi Arabia South Africa
Italy Kenya
UAE India
UK Morocco
Only 13%
of consumers NEVER browse
online for products or services
to buy
5
6. ...but they still research more in branded channels than
consumer-generated media
Average % using touchpoint across categories
Manufacturer / service provider sites 18
Retailer sites 18
Search engines 16 Online
touchpoints
Review sites 12
Price comparison websites 11
User reviews 11
Comments on social networks 6
Word of mouth 17
Retail stores
Offline
12
touchpoints
Offline media 11
6
7. Research in higher involvement / more complex categories is
predominantly done online
Research channels used - %
Online only Both Offline only
TRAVEL 60 15 12
AUDIO VISUAL 53 19 17
FINANCIAL SERVICES 48 15 21
AUTOMOTIVE 49 21 16
MOBILE PHONE 48 28 23
HOME BUYING 47 22 19
HOME APPLIANCES 47 18 23
BABY CARE PRODUCTS 43 15 21
CLOTHES 33 19 29
COSMETICS 34 13 27
TOBACCO 29 7 27
CLEANING PRODUCTS 26 8 29
FOOD/DRINK 25 8 33
7
8. Despite heavy online researching, the majority of purchasing
still occurs offline
Average research pattern across categories
Researched Researched Researched
online only online and offline offline only
43% 14% 22%
Offline purchase Online purchase
8
9. Maximising the ROI of Brand communications
online pre-purchase during the purchase cycle
9
10. eCommerce is the least intrusive context to interact with
consumers; target the path to purchase
Attitudes to brand interaction within activities
22516 39730 17545 5500 11940 3731 4763 13869 12882 7640 5199
% actively
looking for
brands
46 49
35 39 37
29 29 33 29
26 22
17 15 12 16
22 19 18 22
28 23 26
% who find
brands
intrusive
10
11. User-generated content important despite brand generated
content taking larger share
Online research channels used - %
User generated Brand generated
AUDIO VISUAL 33 52
AUTOMOTIVE 31 43
MOBILE PHONE 29 48
BABY CARE PRODUCTS 27 33
HOLIDAY / TRAVEL 26 50
HOME APPLIANCES 26 47
FINANCIAL SERVICES 25 40
COSMETICS 19 30
TOBACCO 16 20
CLEANING PRODUCTS 14 22
CLOTHES 12 30
FOOD/DRINK 12 20
11
12. User-generated is strong in Emerging Asia, creating a strong
need for an integrated strategy for path to purchase
Online research channels used
Brand generated User generated
12
13. Align with sites that best meet the needs of the activity in
different geographies; in China, focus on pre-purchase sites
that have a fun twist
Unique Needs –
Pre-purchase &
browsing
Knowledgeable, informed
In touch, in the loop
Confident, assured
Energised, excited
Reassured, peace of mind
Fun, pleasure
Amused, entertained
A sense of sharing, giving
Energised, excited
Knowledgeable, informed
Intelligent, thinking
Under control, on top of
things
Effective, efficient
13
14. Shopping related offers can be used as a tactic to generate
brand connections
Reasons to join brand community
To get more information about a brand
40
To support a brand I enjoy
35
To connect with a brand I like
25
To follow my friends who are already fans 19
To seek for promotions or special offers 41
To use specific apps promoted by the brand 19
To benefit from a promotion of specific offer 43
14
15. Targeting the next Using Mobile to
generation of Retail access broad
growth audiences
15
16. 4 of 5 consumers will access the mobile ecosystem,
1 out of 5 the PC ecosystem
PC MOBILE
USERS USERS
16
17. Mobile access is critical in rapid growth markets
% online users accessing internet from mobile in last four weeks
39 40
32
26 24 25
22
18
12 14
10
17
18. In mobile, the proportion of consumers that have at least tried
activities is already high. Investment in services and apps will
drive it further
% doing activity on the Mobile
83 Daily Ever 83
78 75 73 71
70
61
55
51
44
43 39
35
29 23
21 18 16
12 8 14
18
19. New features, such as mobile financial services will facilitate
the growth of mobile online retail and the continuing blurring
of the online and offline worlds
Reading your account details on the phone 8 13
Buying air time or phone credit 7 9
Give instructions to your bank using SMS 5 9
Getting money out of your bank account into your phone 4 14
Paying bills like for water, power, rates 3 21
Paying post-paid phone bills or fixed line phone bills 3 10
Paying for items in a shop or restaurant or bar 3 14
Receiving your wages / salary 2 10
Transferring money from your phone into your bank account 2 10
Receiving payments for your goods or services 2 7 Currently doing
Receiving money from another country 1 6
Receiving share or cooperative dividends 1 4
Repaying loans 1 6
Would like to do
Paying rent or mortgage on house 1 5
Paying insurance premiums 1 4
19
20. Tablets already starting to gain traction,
and showing take-up potential
Dev Asia 6 31 Current ownership
Europe 6 28 Intended ownership
N America 5 20
Lat Am 4 23
China 2 6
MENA 1 14
India 11
SSA 8
Emerg Asia 4
20
21. More likely to replace PCs than handsets,
particularly in the emerging world
To replace a mobile To replace a PC
India 10 43
China 8 37
MENA 4 31
Dev Asia 5 30
LatAm 7 21
Emerg Asia 7 20
Europe 5 19
SSA 12 18
N America 3 8
21
22. Describe your mobile retail experience...
If I’m shopping and I find
something I like I will Google
the product to see if it is In bed at 2am or in
cheaper anywhere else HMV Oxford Street
I’ve won auctions
on ebay while on
the move.
Mobile is just for
usually quick search -
check price etc and pc
There is a barcode for purchasing .
scanner on
smartphones. I've
used it to find
cheaper toys for More compromised
the kids but handy
22
UK Mobile shoppers
Hello and good morning.My name is Raj Halabi from TNS and today I will be sharing with you some of the insights we’ve been uncovering on Digital Retail
We will be extracting these insights from Digital Life, which is TNS’ large global syndicated study into what consumers do online... And also from TNS Mobile Life – which provides a global understanding of what consumers across the world do with their mobiles.
Both of these studies share attributes that make them really special:Firstly - Truly global coverage. Mobile Life currently covers 43 markets and 34,000 consumers; Digital Life covers 46 markets and 48,800 digital consumers, representing a colossal 88% of the global internet populationSecondly – both surveys deploy methods that go ‘Beyond Behaviour’What do we mean by that? Well, as markets become more sophisticated and competitive it becomes increasingly important not only to understand what people do, but also about their needs, attitudes and motivations. The ‘emotional’ factors that make up he founding principles of connecting with consumers in the Digital Age. TNS has includes some of the best techniques in the industry within these surveys.Finally – both of these surveys address critical business issues... Enabling strategic and tactical planning at both global and local levels. Providing your organisations with robust platforms to drive internal change programmes. The surveys contain detailed detailed information across a multitude of topic areas, including market understanding, usage, brand and convergence. Something to most of the major information needs within a corporate insights function.
So today I will be sharing with you three stories around the online retail environment... The first one being around the interplay between online browsing and online shopping.-----------How do we define online browsing: Browsing for things to buy online or offline; e.g. consumer reviews, websites, search engines How do we define online shopping:Purchasing online, whether it be groceries, cinema tickets, clothing, gifts, flights or services
The first statistic I want to share with you is a reflection of the sheer scale of online browsing Nearly ¼ of the world’s online population browse online daily for products or services to buy… and these do not all come from developed markets. Amongst the top 10 markets most likely to browse online daily are markets such as Turkey, Thailand, Brazil, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Countries where the internet is a relatively new experience, compared to some developed marketsPerhaps a more relevant figure is that 60% of the global online population actively browse online for product or services at least once a week or more. Consumer’s claim to spend 2.3 hours per week browsing online for products or services to buy. Only 13% claim never to browse online – and the highest proportions of these appear to come from Tier 2 emerging markets including many African countries where infrastructure and an underdeveloped online ecosystem still pose hurdles to growth.In the wider context, there are many other online activities, such as email or social networking that exhibit more frequent use, so there is still potential headroom for online browsing to grow further.---------------Source: Digital LifeI1: Frequency of online activities / OS3: Research sourcesBase: All respondents n=48804
When we investigatewhich locations online consumers are looking at during their pre-purchase browsing - branded channels still dominate over consumer-generated media such as user review sites, user reviews or comments on social networks.More generally, online browsers still also tend to consume a large proportion of information from offline sources as well. ------------Source: Digital LifeI1: Frequency of online activities / OS3: Research sourcesBase: All respondents n=48804
There is a considerable amount of variation here by category… Generally research in higher involvement/more complex categories tends to be more geared towards online only, whereas some of the more ‘everyday purchase’ categories tend to be skewed more towards offline.------------Source: Digital LifeOS3: Research sourcesBases: All respondents who purchased in category in L12M - varies by category, ranges from n=8058 to n=17349
Globally, 80% of online consumers claim to have purchased products/services online (ever), 36% claim to buy online at least weekly. It is definitely the case that consumers who research online are more likely to also buy online, but the conversion rate is not linear. Online research is of huge importance to driving offline sales as well. Over 60% of consumers who research a product/service online only end up buying offline.This is a clear signal that for consumers the online channel is not a silo. Success will be derived out of greater alignment of online activities with offline point of sale to drive conversion. It is important to create seamless and rich experiences that bridge online and offline.Better understanding how consumers inform themselves for purchases within your sector will help to maximise sales.We also need better metrics to measure the ROI of our online retailing activities as clearly online-only revenue sales will miss a great piece of the puzzle.-----------Chart referenceOnline only 61% 39% Both 66% 34%Offline only 82% 18%-----------Source: Digital LifeOS3: Research sources/ OS1: Source of purchaseBases: All respondents who purchased in category in L12M - varies by category, ranges from n=8058 to n=17349
The second story today looks briefly at how online shopping can be leveraged as an information channel to boost consumer engagement
The context to this is as follows. Many of us know first hand the consumer irritation that accompanies a spam email or a poorly designed online creative execution. A well designed and properly tested creative can have a great impact on the success of a campaign… but so can the time and place of the targeting Online shopping and pre-purchase browsing are the times when brands are most likely to have permission to engage with the consumer.Targeting the path to purchase can allow brands to seed the right information to build brand awareness and understanding. To provide consumers with an opportunity to engage further.Of course this should not be the only channel, but often can be a critical entry or reinforcement point, with other channels taking on the longer-term engagement roles.----------------Source: Digital LifeI4: Intrusiveness of brand contactBases: displayed below activity
Part of the challenge of communicating at the path to purchase is the user-generated review. Though brand-generated sources account for a large share of the research channels used, user generated is still significantBut the solution is not to try to stifle or out-do the user review. The most successful brands have deploy strategies to engage directly with consumers, allowing them the creative freedom to post reviews but supporting and actively listening to (and responding to) suggestions for improvement. [Disney Toy Story 3 example]This can also be a strategy to boost information levels in low engagement sectors…----------Source: Digital LifeOS3: Research sourcesBases: All respondents who purchased in category in L12M - varies by category, ranges from n=8058 to n=17349
… or across different geographies.Anyone wishing to break into Emerging Asia would do well to build and encourage user reviews. And we of course know how successful sites like Amazon have been by embracing the user review.-----------Source: Digital LifeOS3: Research sourcesBases: All respondents who purchased in category in L12M - varies by category, ranges from n=8058 to n=17349
But that is not the only factor for success.Different online activities satisfy different needs in different geographies. In China for example, pre-purchase browsing is most associated with Fun and Pleasure, whereas in Southern and Eastern Europe it is more associated with being knowledgeable and informed. Aligning to the emotional and cultural tone will help to drive success.--------------Source: Digital LifeNeedScope profiling of activities. See methodology pack for more detailsBase: All respondents, (MENA, Ch, SEEu n =3045, 2023, 9497)
And completing the next stage of engaging with consumers is also very feasible using a retail-related tactic. The top two reasons for consumers to join brand communities are to seek or to benefit from special offers or promotions. A relatively simple entry point, but also one that will facilitate the creation of more relevant brand engagement and help build brand advocates.---------Source: Digital LifeN13: Reasons for potential brand friending on social networksBase: All respondents using SN, n=40819
My final point for today is about Mobile
It is common knowledge that the universe of mobile users far surpasses the universe of fixed PC users.Tapping into the mobile ecosystem could bring huge benefits and further growth to online retailing
This is particularly relevant in emerging markets, where many consumers’ do not have fixed PC access, relying more heavily on their mobile’s ---------Source: Digital LifeS4: Internet access point in last 4 weeks for leisure Base: All respondents, n=48804
Globally, we are already seeing strong levels of consumers trying online activities on the mobile, including over 60% claiming to do pre-purchase browsing on their phones.---------Source: Digital LifeI1: Frequency of online activitiesBase: All respondents, n=48804
Demand for mobile financial services is high, and this may well be one of the key elements to grow mobile online retail especially in emerging markets.--------Source: Mobile Life 2011
And of course we have the current boom in tablet computerownership, with high demand and projected growth rates.Much of our research has confirmed the point that tablets provide a very different form of consumer engagement, arguably one that is more conducive to online brand engagement and online pre-purchase browsing-------------Source: Mobile Life 2011
Indications are that in many emerging markets the Tablet could take a front-seat compared to the traditional PC.-------------Source: Mobile Life 2011
Even in developed markets, we are also only beginning to scratch the surface of what mobile retail can doThere is clearly an education challenge, but also a technology challenge to be tackled. The mobile, as well as the Tablet is a different platform with a different set of rules. It has a role in the purchase process that needs to be better understood.---------Source: TNS UK Chatterbus 19th May 2011
But it is uniquely powerful as a tool that is always on, always with the consumer that can augment the online and offline worlds with rich, context sensitive data tailored to both the consumers context and the device contextIf we get it right we could open up new rich experiences for consumers, rich experiences that could help to transform retail and build the bridge between the on and offline worlds.