Books, Clothing Top Planned Online Purchases

Global online consumers say that books and clothes are the items they most plan to purchase in the next six months, according to analysis of Nielsen Company global data by My Coupon Codes. Forty-four percent of global online consumers say they will buy books online in the next six months, while 36% plan to buy clothing.

Other top planned near-term online purchases include airline tickets (32%), electronic equipment (27%) and airline reservations (26%).

East Beats West in Online Spending

Comparing global online spending in the Western hemisphere compared to the Eastern hemisphere, it becomes clear that consumers in the East perform more of their monthly shopping online than their Western counterparts. For example, 51% of Western consumers spend less than 5% of their total monthly expenditures online, 27.5% more than the 40% of Eastern consumers who spend this small amount online per month.

While 28% of both Eastern and Western consumers perform 5-10% of their monthly spending online, the real differences occur in the rates with which they perform 11-25% and 26-50% of their monthly spending online. Nineteen percent of Eastern consumers perform 11-25% of their monthly spending online, 36% more than the 14% of Western consumers who do so.

The discrepancy is even larger among consumers who perform 26-50% of their monthly spending online. Nine percent of Eastern consumers spend this amount, 80% more than the 5% of Western consumers who do so. Spending beyond this level online is rare for consumers in both hemispheres.

9 in 10 Asia-Pacific Consumers Have Shopped Online

Almost nine in 10 (87%) consumers in the Asia-Pacific region have shopped online. Rates online shopping among consumers in Europe (85%), North America (83%) and South America (81%) are relatively similar. However, only 53% of consumers in the Middle East, Africa and Pakistan region have shopped online.

Asia-Pacific Consumers Most Critical

In addition to being the most active online shoppers, Asia-Pacific consumers are also the most critical, with 49% of reviews from consumers in this region being negative. Consumers in Europe (32%) are least critical. Fifty-seven percent of online consumers consider customer reviews prior to making a consumer electronics purchase; other items with a large percentage of online consumers checking reviews include cars (45%) and software (37%).

BzzAgent: Brand Advocates Share Info

Consumers who are brand advocates, meaning they habitually share information about products they use, are far more likely to share product data online than non-advocates, according to research released by marketing network BzzAgent in May 2011. This includes using social media, email, e-commerce websites, and online feedback mechanisms.

Brand advocates (28%) are four times as likely as non-advocates (7%) to share information about products, brands, sales or stores via online feedback mechanisms than non-advocates. They are also roughly twice as likely to share information via social media (58% compared to 27%) and e-commerce websites (43% compared to 22%). A smaller, but still significant discrepancy exists in the use of email (53% compared to 39%) for sharing product information.