Shop ‘til you drop (your smartphone)

In a recent post, we saw that consumers in Asia Pacific have leapfrogged the desktop internet and entered a mobile-first world. For anyone who lives in the region, this has wide-ranging implications both online and offline. Let’s take a look at just one area: shopping.

In Asia, shopping starts on smartphones

Source: The Consumer Barometer, 2014

In Asia, shopping starts on smartphones; shoppers use smartphones when deciding what to buy. Almost half (49%) of Korean web shoppers do this. Other countries, including developing markets like Vietnam and Malaysia, are in the 40% range. Compare this to the ~20% figures seen in the West and you can see a clear Asian trend towards smartphone shopping research.

Let’s go a little deeper and look at how consumers use their smartphones for researching products. Taking just one example, home appliances — things like ovens, fridges or kettles — this is the picture that emerges:

Mobile even brings the web inside home appliance shops

Source: The Consumer Barometer, 2014

This chart illustrates the phenomenon sometimes called ‘showrooming’ — where shoppers who are standing in a shop check their phones to make sure they are getting the best deal. What this means for businesses is that the Internet is even in brick-and-mortar shops.

What stands out for me here is that this trend isn’t happening just in ultra-connected South Korea, it’s happening right across Asia — with (for home appliances at least) an emerging country like Vietnam out in front.

We’ve looked at the stages leading up to a sale, but what about people who actually purchase on their smartphones? This is not yet a firmly established global trend, but as with everything mobile, a few Asian countries are already leading the way:

In some Asian countries, shopping ends on smartphones, too

Source: The Consumer Barometer, 2014

With the proliferation of devices out there, the paths consumers take from first thinking about what to buy to parting with their cash are complex. But what’s clear from this research is that, especially in Asia, mobile is an essential part of the journey.

A note on the research:
For more insights like these, head to www.consumerbarometer.com where you can explore the results of our survey carried out by Taylor Nelson Sofres and Google across 46 countries covering device usage and online access, how people shop and watch and the role of digital in the path-to-purchase.

Posted by Simon Kahn, Chief Marketing Officer, Google Asia Pacific