PriceMe reveals results of their 2011 Online Shopping Survey

27th May 2011

Comparison shopping site PriceMe have just completed their annual user survey, which provides some useful insights into NZ online shopping behaviour.

460 registered PriceMe users participated in the survey and were asked a range of questions about their online shopping habits – such as how much time and money they spent online in the last year, what’s important to them when researching prior to an online purchase and what they expect to spend in the coming 12 months.

Some of the results of the survey were:

• 20% carry out some form of online comparison shopping every day, while a further 25% of users say they go online to comparison shop at least once per month
• 25% purchase something online each week and 67% shop online at least once per month or more
• 52% spend between 2-5 hours or greater each week searching online for products
• 29% spent more than $1,000 on online purchases in the last 12 months and 30.5% expect to do so again in the next 12 months. 76% spent $250-$500 or more the last 12 months and 79% expect to do so again in the coming 12 months.
• 57% said that price was the most important factor when researching products online prior to purchasing
• 48% said that buying a reputable brand from a reputable retailer was the second-most important factor when researching products online
• 63% said that expert/user product reviews were important to them when researching products online, while 36% said that viewing a product demonstration video before making a purchasing decision was also important
• 63% regularly shop for daily deals from various NZ one-day-only deal sites

Marketing director for PriceMe, Chris Palmer comments that the user results confirm that online shopping in NZ continues to grow, and that shoppers are becoming more comfortable with online search prior to making a purchasing decision.

“We can see from our traffic data and analytics, that online shoppers in NZ are spending significantly more time reading product reviews and comparing prices than they were even 12 months ago”. Mr Palmer also notes that m-commerce (transactions conducted via a smart-phone such as iPhone or Android) is starting to make an appearance in the survey, with around 16% of respondents that own a smartphone saying they regularly use their device to make an online transaction.

“Retailers who added an online store over the last few years are now reaping the benefits of increased brand exposure and established traffic numbers, but they can’t rest on their laurels just yet ! If they want to reach a new generation of shoppers, they will need to look at opening up other channels such as integrating mobile into their online offering, as take-up of this more convenient form of shopping increases.”

“The most encouraging result from respondents in our survey, was their expectation that they would spend more in the next 12 months on online purchases than they did the previous 12 months. This should be a great relief for online retailers as they get through winter and plan their summer sales and promotions going forward.”

Submitted by PriceMe Ltd

About PriceMe
PriceMe is a leading shopping comparison site in New Zealand that provides shoppers with information on over 400,000 products from around 240 trusted NZ retailers. Users can search and read over half a million product reviews on the site that are provided by alaTest, and post their product and retailer ratings to assist other shoppers.

ENDS

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