Page 14 - index

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Digitalization changes consumers’

buying behavior, retailers struggle to

catch up with

For a second time, DigitasLBi has conducted a ground- chase Offline).
breaking global survey into the emerging trends of multi On the other hand, 69% of consumers are going first to
-platform shopping. The study aims at uncovering the a store to test a product, before ordering it online then.
latest technology trends and consumer habits that are This reverse ROPO-buying behavior, called
transforming how, where, and why we buy, revealing at ‘showrooming’, is common practice by now for every
the same time that when it comes to digitization, con- tenth buyer. Besides, before making a purchase it is
sumers are to some extend already significantly ahead not uncommon for consumers to switch several times
of retailers. between online and offline channels.

While the latter still interpret their marketing strategy to As said, according to the study results of DigitasLBi,
specific sales channels, their customers are getting customers are leading as digital pioneers, while many
used to switch back and forth between channels when retailers design their sales and advertising strategy ex-
shopping, or even combine them, depending on the clusively for individual sales and advertising channels,
stage in the buying process. This is at least what the not realizing that the purchasing behavior of consumers
DigitasLBi study "Connected Commerce 2015" is point- has already changed in the context of digitization.
ing out, having interviewed 1000 netizens regarding Therefore, dealers are most urgently advised to do their
their buying behavior across 17 countries – whereby
Asian eMarketing is mainly interested in the results re-
garding Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan and
Singapore.

According to the survey, consumers use the ad-
vantages of each specific channel: Nine out of ten con-
sumers (86%) are initially looking for product infor-
mation on the Internet for example, before the goods
are finally purchased in retail stores, therefore they be-
long to the group of ROPOs (Research Online, Pur- ROPO (Source: DigitasLBi)
14 Asian eMarketing - December 2015 Omnichannel Marketing
14