Infotech Lead India: A Google India research said 40 percent respondents took help of online information for purchase decisions for technology products.
7 out of 10 of these buyers know the exact brand and model they want to buy with the help of online research before entering the store. This shift in consumers’ behavior was attributed to easy access to Information on the Internet – which has given rise to research online and shop offline consumer behavior.
The impact was highest for tier 1 & tier 2 city consumers with 83 percent respondents saying that they know exactly the brand that they want to buy before they go to the store which highlights the growing reach of Internet which was perceived to be limited to users in metros.
The report also revealed that Internet is now second only to TV to create awareness for tech products – for metro & tier 1 audience.
Nielsen on behalf of Google India conducted the study across 12 cities in India covering top 4 metros, 4 tier 1 cities and 4 tier 2 cities, to understand the buying behavior of shoppers for technology and consumer electronic products.
46 percent respondents said they used mobile internet for research and 22 percent of tier-2 consumers used mobile as the sole device for accessing internet for research.
“The retailers’ ability to influence a buyer’s mind is diminishing and companies need to look at engaging buyers online about their products and offerings. Secondly, the Internet is impacting decisions in tier 2 cities as well and mobiles are emerging as a strong medium,” said Rajan Anandan, VP & managing director Sales & Operations Google India.
In the mobile phones category, the research intensity increased when price exceeded INR 7000, for laptops when the price exceeded INR 30,000 and INR 40,000 and for TVs when the price exceeded INR 30,000.
The average duration of online research for products in this price range is 2 weeks. The respondents also said that they became aware of new products and brands during their online research process, with over 57 percent respondents changing their mind about the brand/model they wanted to purchase when they look for information online.
Most searched technology brands by product category on Google search for the period of Jan 2012 to October 2012:
| Mobile Phones | Laptops | Cameras | TVs | ACs | Refrigerators | Tablets |
| Samsung | Dell | Sony | Sony | Voltas | LG | Apple – Ipad |
| Nokia | HP | Canon | Samsung | LG | Whirlpool | Aakash |
| iPhone | Samsung | Nikon | LG | Samsung | Godrej | Samsung |
| Sony | Lenovo | Samsung | Videocon | Hitachi | Videocon | Micromax |
| HTC | Acer | Panasonic | Panasonic | Panasonic | Kelvinator | HCL |
The pix is sourced from marketresearchanalyst.com
