Search traffic driven by major IT trade events and the Great Singapore Sale
Singapore Internet Users Most Interested In Mobile Phones And Computers In The First Half Of 2010
Search traffic driven by major IT trade events and the Great Singapore Sale
Singapore, 22 July 2010 – According to Experian Hitwise, a leading online competitive intelligence service, Singapore Internet users have shown great interest in mobile phones, topping the list of electronics search terms by product type at 49.6% in the 24 weeks ending 26 June 2010. In the same period, computers and hardware products stood out as another area of interest for Singaporeans, ranking second with 40.7% share of search traffic. Local interest around these specific consumer electronics product categories in the first half of 2010 were closely linked to the occurrence of annual events including the Great Singapore Sale and major IT tradeshows - IT Show and PC Show, which offered consumers superb deals and discounts on mobile phones, and computer and hardware products (See Figure 1).
Figure 1: Top Shopping - Electronics Search Terms by Product Type
Source: Experian Hitwise Singapore (June 2010)
Sample = Top 250 search terms sending traffic to Hitwise Shopping and Classifieds - Appliances and Electronics and Shopping and Classifieds – Computers industries.
The global launch of the iPad in the first half of 2010 also captured the interest of local consumers, with “iPad” ranking as the fourth most popular electronics search term within the Ebook readers category (Source: Experian Hitwise Singapore). Ebook readers accounted for 4.8% of search terms by product type, far outranking other consumer product categories like audio (1.8%), GPS (0.8%) and video (0.5%) (See Figure 1).
“Electronics retailers keen to increase their level of influence among local consumers can leverage search data to track product types that are top-of-mind amongst consumers when developing website content. This helps forecasting product demand leading up to peak shopping periods like the Great Singapore Sale and around major consumer IT events like the IT Show and PC Show,” said Graeme Beardsell, Vice President, Asia Pacific, Experian.
Apple muscles its way into the hearts and minds of Singapore Internet users
In an examination of the Top 10 Shopping – Electronics websites visited by local Internet users, it was apparent that Apple’s global branding and marketing strategies worked well with Singaporean consumers, with the Apple Store being the only global website in the list of top five websites visited by Singaporeans in June 2010. Together, the top five electronics websites, all retailers of mobile phones or computer / hardware products collectively accounted for 42.2% of traffic generated by Singapore Internet users (See Figure 2).
Figure 2: Top 10 Shopping – Electronics websites visited in June 2010 by Singapore users
Source: Experian Hitwise Singapore (June 2010).
The Shopping - Electronics Industry is a custom category built on websites that offer retail in appliances and consumer electronics products, such as white goods, audio appliances, TV and video, communication products, as well as computer retail specialists.Apple’s success in product marketing is further cemented by the fact that “iPhone 4G” was the most popular mobile term searched by Singaporeans, with search traffic spiking 270% in the week ending 12 June 2010 leading up to its global launch (Source: Experian Hitwise Singapore).
Ample online market opportunities available for Singapore retailers
Data from the study of Top 10 Shopping – Electronics websites visited by Singapore Internet users also revealed that a Hong Kong gadget website, Deal Extreme, enjoyed high levels of growth in the past year, with an increase in market share of visits by 73.1% amongst all websites by Singapore Internet users. In addition, various overseas electronics websites accounted for 39% of traffic to electronics websites, representing an opportunity for Singapore vendors to grab further market share (Source: Experian Hitwise Singapore).
“When planning competitive online marketing strategies, Singapore retailers need to be mindful of both the local and overseas competitive pressure that the Internet creates,” said Graeme. “In order to successfully leverage the online medium as a channel to increase sales and gain visibility with their target audience, local retailers may need seek lessons on what may work well for Singaporeans from foreign websites like Deal Extreme. Investing accordingly to gain and maintain a strong online presence.”
With capabilities to help businesses convert data into insights, Experian Hitwise can play a vital role in helping companies to market forward through the online channel and identify opportunities to strategically conduct product marketing campaigns during large-scale consumer IT events and even the Great Singapore Sale. This will enable marketers to successfully engage and influence customers who are most likely become loyal and vocal brand evangelists in the future.
Search reigns supreme in Singapore over social networking and forums
Search engines remained the predominant navigation channel for Singapore Internet users to reach Electronics retail websites, accounting for 27.7% of referral traffic in June 2010, up 11.8% year over year. Google Singapore was identified as the major search engine representing 18.9% of upstream clicks.
While Facebook was identified as the major social network, trailing behind in second and representing 5.9% of upstream clicks (See Figure 3), referral traffic from social networking sites and forums grew at a much faster rate, increasing 21% year over year to represent 18.5% of referral traffic in June 2010 (Source: Experian Hitwise Singapore)
Figure 3: Top 5 Websites Visited before Shopping – Electronics websites, June 2010
Source: Experian Hitwise Singapore (June 2010)
The Shopping - Electronics Industry is a custom category built on websites that offer retail in appliances and consumer electronics products, such as white goods, audio appliances, TV and video, communication products, as well as computer retail specialists.
Experian Hitwise also identified Singapore HardwareZone Community as one of top five referring websites to Shopping – Electronics websites, highlighting the importance of review and technical websites to Singaporeans in their online purchasing cycle.
“Given that search engines are a vital navigation channel to retail websites, website owners should ensure their content is easily found through search engine optimization,” said Graeme. “In addition, word-of-mouth and peer recommendations are key to product research. Retailers should actively foster online fan groups and brand advocates as social networking sites, review websites and blogs become increasingly important in the purchasing cycle.”
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Contact:
Margaret Lam
Experian Public Relations
Tel: +852 2839 5276
Email: margaret.lam@hk.experian.com
Yik Wai Yi
LEWIS PR
Tel: +65 6534 7250
Email: waiyiy@lewispr.com
About Experian
Experian is the leading global information services company, providing data and analytical tools to clients in more than 90 countries. The company helps businesses to manage credit risk, prevent fraud, target marketing offers and automate decision-making. Experian also helps individuals to check their credit report and credit score, and protect against identity theft.
Experian plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange (EXPN) and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 index. Total revenue for the year ended 31 March 2010 was $3.9 billion. Experian employs approximately 15,000 people in 40 countries and has its corporate headquarters in Dublin, Ireland, with operational headquarters in Nottingham, UK; Costa Mesa, California; and São Paulo, Brazil.
For more information, visit http://www.experianplc.com.
For more information on Experian Asia Pacific, visit http://www.experian.com.sg
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About Hitwise
Hitwise, an Experian company, is the leading online competitive intelligence service. Only Hitwise provides its 1,500 clients around the world with daily insights on how their customers interact with a broad range of competitive Web sites and how their competitors use different tactics to attract online customers.
Since 1997, Hitwise has pioneered a unique, network-based approach to Internet measurement. Through relationships with Internet service providers around the world, Hitwise uses its patented methodology to anonymously capture the online usage, search and conversion behaviour of 25 million Internet users. This unprecedented volume of Internet usage data is seamlessly integrated into an easy-to-use, Web-based service designed to help marketers better plan, implement and report on a range of online marketing programs.
Hitwise, an Experian company (FTS-EXPN), http://www.experianplc.com, operates in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Singapore. More information about Hitwise is available at http://www.hitwise.com/sg.
For up-to-date analysis of online trends, visit the Hitwise Intelligence – Analyst Weblogs at http://weblogs.hitwise.com