Miami – More than 40 percent of consumers research CE products
online before purchasing them in stores or in person, a recent consumer survey
shows.
According to “The Path to Consumer Electronics Purchases,” a new
report by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and BIGinsight, 41.2
percent of adults ages 18 and over regularly research their CE purchases
online, and nearly half (49.6 percent) do so occasionally.
The numbers skew differently for consumers who prefer to shop at CE
specialty retailers or online. Only 35.6 percent regularly research CE products
on the web before buying them in specialty stores, compared with 62 percent of
online shoppers.
Coupons remain the biggest trigger of online product searches for
all shoppers at 37.6 percent, followed by magazines (36 percent), TV/broadcast
(35.9 percent), and face-to-face communication (35.2 percent), the study shows.
The majority of consumers said they obtain the coupons online (53
percent) and from emails (60.5 percent).
Word-of-mouth remains the biggest influence on CE purchases at
41.3 percent, followed by in-store promotions (34.7 percent); articles (32.4
percent); TV/broadcast (27.7 percent); Internet advertising (26.1 percent); and
email advertising (25.3 percent).
Those channels greatly outweigh such recent forums as social
media, which influence the CE purchases of only 14.2 percent of respondents, and
mobile devices, which help sway 13.7 percent. Nevertheless, nearly 47 percent
of all respondents said they have a QR code reader app, and that figure jumps
to almost 55 percent among Internet shoppers.
“Broadcast, cable, newspapers and other media certainly play a
role in influencing shoppers seeking consumer electronics, but the diversity of
media it takes to truly reach buyers is eye-opening,” said Sherrill Mane,
research, analytics and measurement senior VP at IAB. “A close look at the
findings reveals that digital is a key part of the ad buy puzzle when it comes
to selling electronics. Consumers who are in the market for HDTVs, home audio
set-ups and the like are clearly a tech savvy group, and that fact needs to be
kept top-of-mind when trying to reach them as they consider their next major
purchase.”
The full report is available at www.iab.net/insights_research.
