Product searches increasingly began in online stores

04/29/2022 – A recent study examined how consumers search for products and the factors that influence their purchasing decisions. The survey of 1,011 consumers in Germany showed that the importance of online stores has increased significantly compared to 2019 thanks to a better user experience, especially at the beginning of the shopping journey.

by Susan Ranish

Online stores for retailers and brands play a major role today for consumers who already know what they want to buy; Nearly one in three (30 percent) first searches here for information about the desired product. In 2019, that percentage was still 22%. In contrast, 22 percent use search engines for this purpose, compared to 31 percent two years ago. A similar picture emerges when consumers only know what kind of product they want to buy. 26 percent start searching for their products directly in online stores (2019: 19 percent), 23 percent in search engines (2019: 33 percent). These are the main results of the study Shopper Story 2022 Germany
by Criteo.

Investing in user experience pays off

According to the study, the main reason consumers look more directly at merchants is a better user experience. Three out of four respondents indicated that compared to 2019, they noticed some improvement or significant improvement when searching for products and when finding needed products in online stores for retailers and brands.

These positive user experiences are also reflected in their online reviews. 72 percent of consumers said they wrote a positive review in the past six months because of a good customer experience, up 10 percent from 2019. Meanwhile, the number of those who wrote a negative review fell from 65 percent to 54 percent.

Must-haves: easy ordering, free delivery and discounts

However, whether the customer has actually decided to place an order in a particular online store after research depends on a number of factors. According to the study, for just over half of those surveyed, quick and easy ordering is the top priority, with 54 percent rating it very important. This is followed by free delivery (51 percent) and discounts and specials (49 percent). Whether a retailer or brand offers a shopping app, it plays only a secondary role when asked about a purchase decision from that provider: only 19 percent consider the app very important in this context.