Online Shopping in NZ Continues to Grow

Media Release

from PriceMe

Wednesday 8th August 2012 (for immediate release)

Online Shopping in NZ Continues to Grow

PriceMe released the results of the annual PriceMe User Survey today, which confirms the continuing rise of online shopping, as well as providing a few surprises about NZ consumers behaviour.

The biggest movers in the 2012 PriceMe User Survey are the rise and rise of smartphone ownership (29% last year to 56% this year !) and growing tablet computer ownership (from 10% last year to 34% this year). The willingness to use smartphones and tablet computers to purchase online is clearly on the increase too, with 14% of respondents using them last year compared to 30% this year.

It appears Apple has got the edge over Android with tablets, at 34% versus 26%, however Apple’s lead over Android in smartphones has rapidly diminished, with only 25% of PriceMe users saying they own an iPhone and a whopping 45% saying they now own an Android phone.

PriceMe’s Marketing Director, Chris Palmer says that this year’s user survey echoes the global trend and confirms other research conducted on online shopping in NZ by firms such as PwC and Neilsen. “We’re seeing continued growth in consumers mixing online shopping with traditional purchasing behaviours, but we are experiencing a significant increase in the number of consumers who are conducting their pre-purchase homework online before buying either directly online or in-store”. “Traffic to PriceMe has doubled year-on-year for the last three or four years, with no sign of it slowing down, with 58% of PriceMe users indicating that they shop online at least once per month” says Palmer.

“Another interesting result from this year’s survey is that price has dropped 14% in importance to consumers, and is being replaced by the growing importance of “reputable retailer” and “reputable product brand” says Palmer.

Regular purchases on Daily Deals sites are beginning to decline according to the results in this year’s survey, with only 58% of respondents now using these sites regularly, compared to 62% last year.

“Online shopping is clearly a quickly-changing space” says Palmer, who adds that “retailers who have the agility to read and respond to consumer demands and expectations will benefit the most”. “We know that approximately 11% of visitors to PriceMe arrive via a mobile device or tablet, so the figures will be the same or similar for most e-Commerce sites. If retailers aren’t providing mobile-friendly websites for this growing metric of users, then their competitors will be”.

A summary of the main questions asked in the 2012 PriceMe User Survey
How much time do PriceMe users spend each week searching for products ? 2011 = 34% of users spent 2-5 hours, 2012 = 39% of users spent 2-5 hours
The number of PriceMe users who spent in excess of $1,000 each year: 2011 = 28.85%, 2012 = 34.07%
What percentage of PriceMe users’ online purchases were from overseas retailers in the last 12 months ? 65% of PriceMe users said 10% of what they purchased online was from overseas, 17% said around 25% of what they purchased was from overseas and 20% of respondents said that at least 50% of their online purchases were from overseas sites.
How important is price when considering buying online ? 2011 = 57% of users said yes, 2012 = 43% of users said yes
What percentage of PriceMe users would post a product or retailer review if it was easy to do ? 2011 = 15.75% said they would, 2012 = 36.28% said they would
What percentage of PriceMe users regularly shop on Daily Deals sites ? 2011 = 62.71%, 2012 = 58.3%
What percentage of PriceMe users own a smart-phone ? 2011 = 29.12%, 2012 = 56.5%
Of the PriceMe users who own a smart-phone, what OS did they use ? iPhone = 25.9%, Android = 45.7%
What percentage of PriceMe smart-phone owners make purchases with their device ? 2011 = 19.63%, 2012 = 35.68%
What percentage of PriceMe users own a tablet computer ? 2011 = 10.19%, 2012 = 34.08%
Of the PriceMe users who own a tablet, what OS did they use ? iPad = 34.43%, Android = 26.23%

Methodolgy
The 2012 PriceMe User Survey was conducted using a random sample of 300 regular users of NZ comparison shopping site www.priceme.co.nz in June 2012.

End

© Scoop Media