Amazon is certainly gaining ground, but survey results from Kenshoo of more than 3,000 consumers in the U.S., Germany, U.K. and France, found that Google is the most-used online source when researching information prior to a purchase.
In terms of product discovery, 85 percent of survey respondents indicated they are most likely to use Google to help find product ideas and information before making a purchase and 72 percent indicated using Amazon (they could select more than one option), followed by eBay (38 percent).
When it comes to discovery differences by country, the most significant statistical differences were found in eBay's use outside the United States. In the U.S., for example, 31 percent of respondents selected the marketplace as a site they would likely use to help find products, but in the UK and Germany that number rose to 50 percent and dipped to 23 percent in France.
Marketers should have a clear understanding of where potential customers are accessing their products from and work to increase the visibility on those networks or marketplaces.
On the heels of this report, Kenshoo announced the general availability of
Kenshoo Ecommerce Marketing starting with Amazon, which uses cross-channel insights from social, search and now ecommerce, so brands can connect with consumers from discovery to point of purchase.
"Our job is to put our clients where their customers are. In order to do this, it's critical for brands to be active on Amazon," said Janel Laravie, Chief Executive Officer of Chacka Marketing. "Kenshoo Ecommerce Marketing helps accelerate and optimize our marketing initiatives to help connect our brands to their customers - at that crucial point of purchase. Being able to translate activity from Amazon to other channels such as Facebook and Pinterest, is incredibly valuable for our clients. There really isn't any other offering like this out there in the market today."