Our Google on the Street Team have been out and about again...This time, they have been talking to consumers about online shopping.

The team have tried to gain some insights into how consumers are using online as part of their research and purchase process.

Now that one in four UK mobile users owns a smartphone (Source: ComScore MobiLens, March 2010), we were also interested in looking into how consumers are using their mobiles to make purchases, if at all.

Watch our short video to find out the responses to questions around the following topics:

• How do consumers research products that they are interested in buying?

• What are the most important factors when shopping online?

• Are they using their mobile phones to make online purchases?

• What types of products are they purchasing online?

• What are the main frustrations that they encounter when trying to complete an online purchase?

Posted by Selina Rennie, Agency Team

Many retailers have been asking us about the anticipated impact of the 2010 World Cup and what they should do online to capture the sales inertia created by the tournament.

Well in short, we believe that the typical sectors like Audio Visual, Groceries and Home Appliances (including BBQs, mini fridges etc) will be leading the charge (especially if the weather holds up!). However, thinking about what businesses should do to capitalise on this opportunity presents further questions. Namely, will there be a shift in search behaviour in the lead up to this year’s tournament?

Looking at the below extract from Insights for Search we can see that the top rising search terms during Oct’09 (what could be considered as a reasonable reflection of a consumer’s research period) are all fairly generic. They reflect how the British public like researching consumer electricals online while looking for a bargain with modifiers such as “sale” and “deals” being thrown into the mix.


(Google Insights for Search, October 2009)

In contrast, when we look at the top rising searches within the same category in the run-up to the 2006 tournament there is a marked difference in what people were searching for. The top six rising searches were all TV product codes:


(Google Insights for Search, May '06 - June '06)

This implies that just before the last World Cup consumers were clearer on what they wanted and a few front runners became the most searched TVs among Google users in the UK! For TV manufacturers, wouldn’t this be great news if it was your products? If you are a retailer how much would you want these purchases to come through your store?

Below we can see the top terms from March’06 – Apr’06. While there are a few “break out” searches for champion products such as the Panasonic Viera th42px60, there are also many generic/research type keywords like “HDTVs”, and leading brands such as “Bravia” and “Samsung”. What is interesting to note is the lack of “cheap” or “deal” related search terms at this point.


(Insights for Search Mar '06 - Apr '06)

It is also interesting to look at when the major Home Video spike in interest occurred:


(Google insights for search May ’06 – June’06)

Category interest was highest on the last weekend of the month, presumably after everyone had been paid. While we are missing conversion data, we would be confident that sales would have followed a similar pattern (online and off). Against type there is a spike in interest on a Saturday and in our experience only key shopping events like Christmas - and of course England being in the World Cup! - influence the UK’s weekly search patterns like this.

While it is not that surprising to think that most people are likely to purchase a product once they have been paid, what is interesting is that it seems many will have already considered what products they want to buy.

… So what are the implications of these trends ahead of this year’s World Cup? If you are a manufacturer then make sure people know about your TVs asap. Display advertising could be one solution. If you are a retailer, advertising on all relevant keywords at the various stages of the purchasing funnel will help ensure that you influence consumers, so when they are ready to make that all important purchase they think of your goods!

Posted by Alastair Stirling, Senior Industry Analyst, Retail Team

Using Google search data, Google have created a Barometer to show how consumer confidence is faring in our ever-changing climate. The search trend line is made up of keywords that reflect changing consumer sentiment; these are then plotted on a chart hosted on our Survival of the Fastest channel (click Trends tab). Our barometer indicates that consumer confidence is showing signs of recovery. This trend is also reflected in analysis done by the OECD and in Morgan Stanley’s Economy & Internet trends Report Oct 09 (slide 17).

If we look at our real time insights tool ‘Google Insights for Search’ we can also spot some green shoots. Searches for repossessions are down 50% year on year in Oct 09. In Oct 08 searches for ‘Safe Savings’ rose 2500% year on year. It has since fallen back to pre-credit crunch levels. Searches for ‘end of the recession’ are new to 2009 as consumers look towards better climate. More people are searching for last minute deals than this time last year. Searches for real estate agencies are up in 09 vs 08. And, are people starting to think about purchasing cars again?

To find out what consumers think our 'Google on the Street' Team went out and asked them. Do people think we are at the end of the recession? What kind of purchases are we considering? How is online shopping helping consumers survive in an uncertain climate? Watch the video below to see what people are saying.

Posted by Rosie Rankin, Agency Team

Did you know 20 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute? That 84% of the UK population owns a mobile phone? Or that on average 30% of our leisure time is now spent online?* We always hear interesting stats on the Internet marketplace and we thought it would be great to share these in one easily accessible location so we've just launched an Internet Stats microsite. This site aims to provide searchable and browsable stats on the Internet and the advertising industry from reputable and carefully selected sources. The stats are split into five sections:

• Technology
• Macro Economic Trends
• Media Landscape
• Media Consumption
• Consumer Trends

We'll be keeping the stats fresh and adding new ones as we find them but if you have a stat that you find useful and want to share then there is a ‘Submit a Stat’ form for you to send us one. Whether you are an advertiser or work in the media industry and want to uncover key industry stats or just someone interested in the trends of the web, we hope you'll find the tool useful. As always we welcome feedback on how we can improve this.

*Sources:

YouTube, May 2009
Deloitte, April 2009
TNS (PDF), December 2008

Posted by Dom Elliott, UK B2B Marketing Team

We recently held two Summits, as part of our Survival of the Fastest series of events, in London. The first was the Google eCommerce Summit where we invited the UK's leading eCommerce decision-makers to share their perspectives on the current environment and on how they are getting ahead and staying competitive. The second was the Google Marketing Summit where we invited the UK's leading Marketers to share their perspectives on 21st century marketing.

The attendees heard from some fantastic speakers, a variety of prominent industry- and thought-leaders, in presentations, panels and breakouts. We are pleased to announce we are now able to share the content from both days with a wider audience on YouTube. From the inspirational Opening Keynote on the first day from Bob Thacker, the Chief Marketing Officer of OfficeMax, to an insightful presentation on the second from Joe Rosper, one of the masterminds behind President Obama's digital election campaign, we highly recommend taking some time out to watch the videos. You may also download the PDFs of the slides where available using the 'Download' button.

To browse and watch the videos go the the Survival of the Fastest Channel and click on the 'Events' tab.

Posted by Dom Elliott, Product Marketing Team

In our recent post Rise of the Meticulous Shopper we discussed how despite the recession our free insights tools, such as Insights for Search, indicate that consumers are not only shopping more online but increasingly researching big and small ticket items in order to get the best value possible. We wanted to know if people agreed with our findings, so our ‘Google on the Street’ team went out and asked them. How is the Internet making consumer’s lives easier and what do they expect from businesses online? Watch the video below to see what consumers are saying.

You can download some of these consumer snapshots by topic:

• Online Shopping
• Community Influences
• Web Usability

Posted by Rosie Rankin, Agency Team