50% online consumers bank on social media sites

More than eight out of 10 Indian online consumers plan to buy products on the net in the next 12 months, while a quarter said they spend about 11 per cent of their monthly shopping budget on online purchases.

According to a recent Nielsen Global Online Shopping Report, Asia Pacific consumers spend most on online purchases, as a percentage of total shopping expenditure, compared to any other region globally. Twenty-three per cent of Indians surveyed, said they had never shopped online. Globally, 16 per cent of consumers have never shopped online and the percentage is even less in Asia Pacific with only 13 per cent.

To Shop online, Indians depend on recommendations from family and friends. According to the Nielsen report, 71 per cent of Indians trust recommendations from family when making an online purchase decision, followed by recommendations from friends at 64 per cent and online product reviews at 29 per cent.

Indians like to have a first-hand experience for high involvement products and services. The traditional one-to-one experience with a sales person, who clarifies their doubts, is preferred by many. Since the online medium doesn’t allow them the luxury, most prefer recommendations from family and friends. However, many are catching on with the idea of reading through expert reviews online, said Karthik Nagarajan, director, online division, The Nielsen Company.

Online reviews and opinions are very important for Indians when buying consumer electronics (57 per cent), software (50 per cent) and cars (47 per cent). The Nielsen report highlights the importance of online opinions as part of the decision-making process in purchasing products and services. Many Indian consumers went on to say they would not buy products or services without considering online reviews, especially consumer electronics (41 per cent), cars (38 per cent) and software (35 per cent).

With online reviews and opinions weighing so heavily on the consumer’s decision making processes, it is interesting to note that more than four in 10 Indians are likely to share (post a review/ tweet/ review) a negative product or service experience online than they were to share a positive experience. At the country level, this tendency was highest among consumers in China (62 per cent), Vietnam (46 per cent), Singapore and India (both 44 per cent).

Half the Indian consumers use social media sites to help them make online purchase decisions. The percentage is higher for the Asia Pacific region at 60 per cent who use social media sites to help them make purchase decisions (compared to 43 per cent globally).

In the next six months, Indians are most likely to buy books (41 per cent), airline ticket/reservations (40 per cent), and electronic equipment like TV and camera (36 per cent) online.