Half of online shoppers head straight to Amazon

As a marketing agency we spend a significant chunk of time understanding consumers and their ever-changing buying habits.

That’s why we were particularly interested to read a recent report which confirmed that Amazon has become the go-to source for product information and customer reviews. even when the final purchase isn’t being made there!

The research was carried out by InRiver, the market leader for simplifying Product Information Management (PIM) and it highlighted the retail giant’s growing monopoly in the world of e-commerce. 6,000 consumers were surveyed across Europe and just one in ten (11 per cent) of them said they will now head to a brand’s website in the initial stage of a purchase, whilst only 28 per cent said they turn to a search engine.

Nearly half of the shoppers surveyed (45 per cent) go straight for Amazon when they’re looking to purchase a product; 74 per cent use it as a go to source for price comparisons; 58 per cent use it for consumer reviews, and 41 per cent use the online retail giant for general product information.

Unsurprisingly, the time to convince shoppers to purchase is short, confirmed by the fact that 41 per cent of the surveyed shoppers won’t consult another online store if all the information they need is provided in the first shop they visit. But one third of consumers will move to another website within 10 seconds if the general product information is lacking.

The short attention spans of consumers mean it is now so important for brands and retailers to ensure they’re using the right medium to convey their information. 33 per cent of respondents said they appreciate videos that show products in different contexts, while 18 per cent said they’d like to see products demonstrated by influencers. 49 per cent said they trust YouTube the most for video information about products, followed by Facebook at 32 per cent.

We love a statistic…can you tell? We hope you find this as interesting as we did. In summary, Amazon is taking over the world.

Get in touch if we can help ensure your business is standing out from the crowd!