Fifty per cent of Australian consumers research products online before they venture out to shop.
And this Christmas, the power of Google cannot be denied, as Kate McDonald discovered.
It sounds a bit, well, dim, but there are people out there in need of a new item of clothing who actually Google “shirt”. Just the word “shirt”, and nothing else.
More considerate people take the time to help out their favourite search engines by adding an adjective such as red shirt, formal shirt, wedding shirt or business shirt, but there are plenty out there who rely so entirely on the power that is Google that just plain “shirt” seems to suffice.
Who knows how successful they are in finding that special item, but according to Google Australia’s industry marketing manager for retail and consumer goods, Ross McDonald, there were 21 million apparel queries in the month of June alone, and “shirt” was a common one.
In fact, searches for generic terms like shirt, trousers, skirt, dress and fashion often rate the highest on his weekly lists of top search items for apparel. It is perhaps only after the generic search lists 20 billion mentions that some consumers think a little more deeply.
The next most common search items when it comes to apparel tend to be the names of popular retailers and clothing brands – which are often the same thing – and then something interesting begins to happen.
“If you could follow one individual through – and no person is typical – generally they search for the features first, then brands and then prices, and then they’ll switch to a retailer search,” McDonald says.
“They then ask where can I get it, or is the retailer open when I want to buy something. Does Myer have that brand, for example? And then when does Myer open, are they open on Friday night, can I park there?
“It is normal Australians who have the same needs, whether they are attached to a computer or standing in the middle of a store. Manufacturers and retailers should take great comfort from that fact – consumers still have the same needs.”
Stuffed shirts
Earlier this year, Google commissioned the Australian Centre for Retail Studies to conduct a survey on the online search habits of Australian consumers and found a massive increase in the number of people researching consumer goods, as well as the amount of searches undertaken.
Retail searches using Google during the 2008 Christmas period increased by 36 per cent over the previous season, and this is expected to increase even more this year.
Figures from June this year showed a further 27 per cent increase in searches for apparel, McDonald says. “It is still growing at a rapid rate. Across retail, we are getting 20 to 30 per cent growth.”
Seasons are important to online apparel searches as much as they are to brands and retailers. “The big periods are across all apparel: Christmas, then the mid-year boost, and then it splits into different categories. We see spikes around things like the Spring Racing Carnival and then at the start of seasons – summer and winter – and people are inspired to search by what they see around them as well. Every time there is a fashion week, that will inspire people to go online and get more information.”
Traditional advertising and marketing still works, and is in fact essential to the success of online shopping, McDonald says. The research company Nielsen estimates that 60 per cent of people using the internet at home have their TV on as well.
“People watch TV and they’ve got their laptop next to them, and they see things on the telly – and will say, ‘gee, I like that frock’ – and then you get a whole lot of searches inspired by what they’ve seen,” McDonald says.
This all sounds like common sense, so how can clothing manufacturers and retailers best harness this powerful market research? Google keeps figures on the top brand searches close to its chest as it is a tidy little earner for the company, but it does have a free tool called Insights for Search that can help out. Try it yourself: go to www.google.com/insights/search, type in ‘running shoes’ and limit your search to the last 12 months in Australia.
Variations on Nike and Asics will pop up as the most popular, as will ‘running shoes Australia’ – there’s the shirt brigade again – and then smaller brands like Brooks.
The page will also tell you what searches are rising in popularity – Newton running shoes, Mizuno shoes – and one retailer: Athlete’s Foot.
If you search for a big retailer like David Jones with the same delineators, have a look at what happens to the graph in late December and in early June. (And if you look at the top and the rising search items, both Myer and Mimco will be pleased.).
So how do independents tackle the big guys using the power of the internet? Well, those little paid ads at the top of the search results must work or Google wouldn’t be the multi-billion dollar monolith it is today, but what search engines can do is massively open the market for smaller or niche retailers. All you have to do is target those who put a little more thought into their searches than “shirt”.