New insights into online shopping habits
Australian and New Zealand online consumers are slowing spending and preferring to shop on home-grown sites.
As the local dollars plunged during the quarter ending December 2008, digital marketing solution provider Coremetrics found that the conversion rate for online sales in Australia and New Zealand has dropped to just 2.9 and 2.5 orders per 100 online sessions respectively, compared with 4.4 and 4 respectively between the months of April and June 2008.
Kevin Mackin, GM for Coremetrics, ANZ, believes this change in behaviour is a clear indication that online consumers are feeling the pinch of the exchange rate when considering buying online from overseas websites.
"ANZ online consumers are definitely more cautious in their spending at the moment and are looking for bargains closer to home. That said, both countries are experiencing the next highest conversion rates behind the US."
ANZ consumers may be purchasing less frequently than when the dollar was strong, but they're still significantly ahead of their UK and Singapore counterparts. The conversion rate for Singapore is 0.9
orders per 100 online sessions and 1.4 for the UK, both well below the world average of 3.2 orders.
"I think this data shows that Aussies and Kiwis are consistently relying on the net for shopping alternatives even during tough times," Mackin continued. "While we might be spending slightly less time browsing and viewing less pages, the survey results show that ecommerce is a vital sales channel for many businesses today. Even when the chips are down service providers and retailers need to constantly look for ways to engage customers and close sales online."
The recent study undertaken by Coremetrics looked at the trends of ecommerce users across the UK, USA, Singapore, NZ and Australia from October to December 2008. Consumer activity was collated and analysed from more than
80 million web sessions and 750 million page views, which included 2.7 million orders collectively valued at more than 200 million US dollars.
Results found that the global average session length was 5:04 minutes, with 9.0 page views per session, average orders to the value of US$81.26, and 3.2 orders per 100 sessions. Australia
The Australian average session length was 5:46 minutes, with 7.1 page views per session, and average orders totalling US$37.86.
In NZ, average session length was 5:39 minutes, with 7.4 page views per session, and average orders valued at US$38.79.
Consumers in the US had average session lengths of 6:01 minutes, with 9.5 page views per session, average orders of US$77.94 and 3.8 orders per 100 sessions.
UK consumers recorded average session lengths of 5:30 minutes, 6.2 page views per session, average orders of US$70.90 and 1.4 orders per 100 sessions. Singapore
Singaporeans were the biggest spenders, with average orders valued at US$98.22 from session lengths of 5.22 minutes, 7.4 page views per session and 0.9 orders per 100 sessions.
Source: Inside Retailing
Friday, 16 January 2009
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