Almost half (45%) of consumers choose Amazon as their first resource when looking to buy a specific product, according to a report out from inRiver. This is followed by just 28% who start their product hunt on a search engine and 11% who go direct to a brand’s website.
Amazon has become a go-to first resource for product information, price comparisons and consumer reviews and, as 41% of online shoppers won’t consult another online store if all the information they need is provided in the first shop they visit, it’s no surprise that Amazon are winning sales. One third of shoppers (31%) will move to another website within 10 seconds if general product information is lacking so if you are attracting some of the 11% who visit websites directly you need to work hard to capture the shoppers before they leave.
The most commonly searched for information is price comparisons (74%), general product information (fabric, ingredients etc.) (41%) and reviews (58%). Other data is even more crucial to purchasing decisions: consumers will abandon their virtual shopping cart instantly and turn to another retailer to make the purchase if images (20%), information on availability (25%) or information on pricing (39%) are missing.
“Consumers are dismissive of brands and retailers who do not instantly deliver the information they need. Adding a limited number of pictures to the general product information is no longer good enough. Consumers’ expectations have increased, and they want to see products in context, as they would in-store, to give them the confidence to buy. Good product information is essential in turning browsers into buyers.”
– Thor Johnson, CEO, inRiver
The reasons that Amazon are winners in the search market are numerous, but doubtless the combination of single detail product pages and rich content from brands and reviews including video go a long way to satisfying consumers combined with clear pricing and delivery information.
This clearly indicates why eBay are so keen to develop and roll out their Product Based Shopping Experience as it’s the only way to collate pricing, reviews and present rich product descriptions to their buyers combined with a choice of buying format and product condition.
A big takeaway has to be that Amazon is the place where your inventory has to appear to capture nearly half of first searches. If your product isn’t on Amazon then almost half of the time if a consumer finds a similar item then you are probably missing out on the sale.
The research was conducted by VIGA among 6,088 consumers from the UK, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands and Belgium in September 2018. There were 2,000 respondents from the UK.
2 Responses
It’s just a shame that it has taken Amazon so long to increase workers’ wages! At least they are doing it now, but looking at the company value and market dominance, it makes you question why not sooner?
Interesting info about price comparisons…. We moved toa free postage approach on our web site but have actually seen sales fall. I was pretty much sure it was down to our prices look more on face value. Alot of these price comaprision sites promote the actual item price and ignore the postage costs… So i guessd maybe it is tiem to switch back?!