Google Commissioned Study Reveals 5 Key Findings in Mobile Path to Purchase

Press release December 10, 2013 Google news Online shopping Ekmpowershop Mcommerce Mobile shopping Google Online retail Spartphone

A custom Nielson Study commissioned by Google to understand the role of Mobile in consumers’ path to purchase has been released.

The study explored consumers purchase behaviour in 9 verticals: Food & Cooking, Finance, Travel, Restaurants, Apparel & Beauty, Automotive, Home & Garden, Health & Nutrition and Electronics.

950 people responded to a survey based on their mobile related research within a purchase category where actual mobile usage was observed by analysing 14 days of panelists’ mobile-metered data.

What impact does this study have on Advertisers?

Consumers spend time researching on their mobiles

With consumers visiting business websites on average 6 times, it is essential that you make sure you have a mobile-optimised website and when possible extend to apps for loyal, repeat customers.

Mobile research starts with search

As search is the most common starting point, it is essential to be there when potential customers are looking for you. If you use Google Adwords then tailor your Ads with mobile-preferred creative’s and call to actions, such as “Visit our Mobile Site” or “Call Now”.

Location Matters

Enable location extensions and help consumers find you, let them know how close you are and provide directions so they have the option to purchase offline should they wish to do so.

Purchase immediacy

Create an easy mobile checkout experience for your customers and enable click to call on your Ads.

Mobile influences purchases

Measure your conversions across channels that come from mobile and take advantage of cross-device conversion tracking.

A breakdown of the study

Respondents all met the following criteria:

Age 18+
Smartphone user
Made a purchase in at least one of the verticals in the last 30 days

The study found:

1. Consumers do spend time researching on mobile, and do in fact spend over 15 hours per week researching on the smartphone and on average visit mobile websites 6 times and 59% visited a business website.
   
   
2. Mobile research starts with search, rather than searching on a mobile site or app. The study showed that 74% of users start researching about products or services on a search engine.
   
   
3. Location matters to mobile consumers with 69% expecting a business to be within 5 miles or less of their location.
   
   
4. Purchase immediacy is key with over half, 55% of the consumers wanting to make a purchase with an hour of carrying out research on their smartphones, with 83% wanting to purchase within a day.
   
   
5. Mobile influences purchase across channels. The study showed that 93% of people who use mobile to research do go on to complete a purchase of a product of service. Most purchase happen in a physical store.

Search is the most common starting point for mobile research, with the study showing:

1. 48% Start on Search Engines
2. 33% Start in Branded Websites
3. 26% Start on Branded Apps
   
   

Consumers convert primarily in-store and online across devices

1. 82% Purchased in-store
2. 45% Purchased online (desktop/tablet)
3. 17% Purchase directly on their mobile phone

Subjects

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Google news Online shopping Ekmpowershop Mcommerce Mobile shopping Google Online retail Spartphone