Every year, Think With Google publishes a number of interesting research reports. The latest, out this week, looks at some of the biggest consumer trends as we come to the end of the year and decade.
Some of the key takeaways from this report are that:
- Consumer journeys are becoming increasingly complex, with frequent jumps between the online and offline world. Search is now used as frequently as an upper funnel channel, as much is it is a lower funnel one.
- New media channels are emerging, including podcasts, AR and voice. While we know they are constantly connected, at times, it’s hard to nail down exactly where consumers are spending time online.
- Image search is growing in popularity as the technology matures and becomes more reliable.
- Satisfying immediacy is often more important than loyalty – the biggest battle for retailers especially is getting people what they want, as soon as they want it. Local search has grown as a result, with “near me” searches increasing across almost every category.
- Traditional industries, such as groceries, automotive and finance, are transforming with digital.
- Standards are being raised in privacy and digital wellbeing.
Some of the fun facts that we particularly enjoyed from the report are:
- More than 55% of shopperssay they used online video while actually shopping in a store.
- Over the past three years, the number of YouTube channels with more than 1 billion views has grown by 5X.
- Mobile searches for “podcast(s)” have grown by over 80% in the past two years.
- 75% of smartphone users expect to get immediate informationwhile using their smartphone.
- Mobile searches for “store open near me” (such as, “grocery store open near me” and “auto parts store open near me”) have grown by over 250%in the last two years.
- Only 3% of U.S. grocery shopping occurs online, but e-commerce penetration is projected to tripleover the next 10 years.
- Mobile watch time of test drive videos on YouTube has grown by over 70%in the past two years.
- Mobile searches related to financial planning and management have grown 70%over the past two years.
- 1 in 3 Americans have taken steps to improve their digital wellbeingin the past year, and more than 80% of them said this had a positive impact on their overall sense of wellbeing.
- 67% of parents are concerned about the amount of time their kids spend on devices.
You can download the full report here.
