While access to the internet has expanded greatly over the past few decades, reaching over half the world's population, online consumer behavior is still evolving rapidly. Key trends include the rise of mobile devices and video for online shopping and digital marketing. Customers now research products across various online and offline sources before making purchase decisions based on factors like price, brand and product reviews. Top selling online product categories continue to grow and include clothing, consumer electronics and personal care.

2. While the Internet has
changed many things,
people are still the same.
Introduction

3. This is how computers
communicated before
the Internet
Access to the Internet

4. 1971 First ever email sent.
1989
World Wide Web (WWW)
coined at CERN
1991
First website built by Sir Tim
Berners-Lee
1993
First ever primitive search
engine created (W3Catlog)
1994
First ever eCommerce
transaction
1994 Amazon incorporated
1995
First item sold on eBay (a
broken laser pointer)
1998
Google founded by two
Stanford Uni Ph.D students
Access to the Internet - key milestones
2002
First Social Network
(Friendstar) created
2006
Facebook becomes an open
system, available to all

5. Access to the Internet - speed
2016 - Voyager 1
Speed: 2.0 GBPS
Fact: Voyager 1 used the
gravitational fields of planets to
slightshot itself beyond our solar
system.
2003 - Cheetah
Speed: 4 MBPS
1994 - Ant
Speed: 0.028 MBPS
Increased Internet speed means greater functionality, means greater public take-up. If the web in
1994 was at the speed of an Ant, comparatively in 2003 it was Cheetah-like, and in 2016, had
burst through the sound barrier to overtake high speed trains, shooting bullets and rocket ships.

6. Access to the Internet - % of world population
This graph spans from 1994 to 2014. It is estimated that over 53% or over four billion
people were connected to the Internet by the end of 2018.

7. Access to the Internet - internet penetration by region

8. Access to the Internet
To sum up: Over half of the world’s
population can now enjoy connection
to the Internet, and at speeds that
open multiple opportunities to expand
e-commerce offerings

9. Digital devices - some things not connected
But give it time ...

10. Digital devices - snapshot what is connected
There are
forecast to
be 28 billion
connected
devices
worldwide by
2021
ioT devices
overtook
mobile
phones as
the largest
category of
connected
devices in
2018

11. Digital devices
To sum up: Shopping and purchasing
behaviour for some products are
unrecognisable from 15 years ago
because of the proliferation of portable/
personal digital devices. More changes
coming!

12. Customer search - the journey
1.
2.
3.
4.
Awareness:
trigers and
influencers
Consideration:
product and
company research
Conversion:
where and
when to buy
Evaluation:
experience
and feedback

13. Customer search - awareness
52% of consumers cited at least one offline channel as
a source of initial awareness, and 59% cited one or more
online channels.
Of online channels, online shops (such as Amazon, eBay,
etc) were the most mentioned awareness generators.

14. Customer search - consideration
While online sources are cited as important for product/company
research (55% of consumers), offline sources are still important, such as
visiting a physical store (26%) and speaking with family or friends (23%)

15. Customer search - conversion
Most important attributes when deciding where to buy

16. Customer search - evaluation
93%
of consumers say online
reviews impact their purchase
decision
57%
of consumers will not use a
business that has an online
rating lower than four star

17. Consumer search
To sum up: Awareness in a crowded
market place - challenging. Online
stores still a factor for consideration.
Price and brand are king for online
conversion. Reviews and consumer
confidence - critical.

18. What consumers buy online - volume and growth
Retail sales online are currently
doubling every five years and last year
topped almost $2.5 trillion.

19. What consumers buy online - top selling product categories
2
1
3 3
2
1

20. What consumers buy online - top selling product categories
Share of internet users who have
purchased selected products online in
the past 12 months as of 2018.
This list does not include top selling
services - travel/accommodation,
entertainment tickets, and educational
courses

21. What consumers buy online
To sum up: Products that fit into the
criteria suitable for online sales will
continue to grow in sales

22. Online video consumption - the big numbers

23. Online video consumption - marketing

24. Online video consumption - marketing
Digital video
advertising spend
has increased by
53% since 2016

25. Online video consumption - marketing
To sum up: Your brand is not a stagnant strategy on
a piece of paper — you must bring it to life. Video
lends electroshock therapy to flatlining marketing
strategies and generates pulse.
William Craig (2018)

26. Consumer trends - marketing
More people will be shopping
on mobile devices
Takeaway: Mobile generating traffic, but not
converting as effectively as desktop

27. Consumer trends - marketing
Consumers using social media
to browse
Takeaway: Take advantage of the highly
targetable, brand-building ability of social

28. Consumer trends - marketing
Digital wallets as payment
options
Takeaway: Use is determined by target
demographic’s region

29. Consumer trends - marketing
Free and quick shipping
Takeaway: Consumers’ expectations for
delivery times are shortening (4.5 days)

30. Consumer trends - marketing
Voice search
Takeaway: While keywords are the focus
for the SEO world, when using voice search
people tend to phrase their search in the form
of a question.

31. Consumer trends - marketing
Personalised advertising and
marketing strategies
Takeaway: Use the highly target-able
attributes of digital such as personalised email
and remarketing

32. Consumer trends - marketing
Good marketing makes
the company look smart.
Great marketing makes the
customer feel smart.”
- Joebhai Chernov
“

33. References
Digital Trek (2013). A short history of major internet milestones [online].
Available at: https://visual.ly/community/infographic/social-media/short-
history-major-internet-milestones [Accessed July 29, 2019]
NCTA (2016). A history of speed as the world wide web turns 25 [online].
Available at: https://www.ncta.com/whats-new/a-history-of-speed-as-
the-internet-turns-25 [Accessed July 29, 2019]
Perception (2015). Internet diffusion and usage statistics over time
[online]. Available at: http://percepticon.de/material/open-data/internet-
diffusion-and-usage-statistics/ [Accessed July 30, 2019]
McDonald N (2018). Digital in 2018: World’s Internet users pass
the 4 billion mark [online]. Available at: https://wearesocial.com/us/
blog/2018/01/global-digital-report-2018 [Accessed July 30, 2019]
Ericsson. (2016). Ericsson Mobility Report on the Pulse of the Networked
Society [online]. Available at: https://www.ericsson.com/assets/local/
mobility-report/documents/2016/Ericsson-mobility-report-june-2016.pdf
[Accessed August 3, 2019]
Hwong, C. (2018). Introducing the E-Commerce Ecosystem: The state
of cross-device digital shopping [online]. Available at: https://www.
vertoanalytics.com/introducing-e-commerce-ecosystem-state-cross-
device-digital-shopping/ [Accessed August 13, 2019]
KPMG (2017). The truth about online consumers [online]. Available at:
https://assets.kpmg/content/dam/kpmg/xx/pdf/2017/01/the-truth-about-
online-consumers.pdf [Accessed August 5, 2019]
Ramos, E. (2019). Online reviews: Can this destroy your product or
strengthen your brand? [Online]. Available at: https://medium.com/swlh/
online-reviews-can-this-destroy-your-product-or-strengthen-your-brand-
8efd426c9410 [Accessed August 5, 2019]
Louvre Media. Build customer trust [Online]. Available at: https://blog.
louvremedia.com/tag/customer-reviews/ [Accessed August 5, 2019]
Edison Discovers (2019). These were 2018’s top selling product
categories at Amazon and eBay [online]. Available at: https://medium.
com/edison-discovers/these-were-2018s-top-selling-product-categories-
at-amazon-and-ebay-1c8a5c62d49c [Accessed August 5, 2019]
Tiburca, A. (2018). Five metrics every YouTube marketer needs to track
[online]. Available at: https://thenextweb.com/contributors/2018/01/09/5-
things-every-youtube-marketer-needs-track/ [Accessed August 6, 2019]
Carter, J. (2019). Video marketing statistics to know for 2019 [online].
Available at: https://www.smartinsights.com/digital-marketing-platforms/
video-marketing/video-marketing-statistics-to-know/ [Accessed August
6, 2019]
Dod, R. (2019). Consumer online shopping trends for 2019 [online].
Available at: https://www.visiture.com/blog/consumer-online-shopping-
trends-for-2019/ [Accessed August 6, 2019]