According to a report conducted by search engine Google, smartphones are becoming a vital part of online shopping in Nigeria. According to the report, 85 percent of shoppers use smartphones for product research compared to the 30 percent who use computers, and 6 percent who use tablet devices.
Utilising the Consumer Barometer, Google is essentially attempting to enhance the understanding of how Nigerians and people across the globe deploy the internet for commercial activities.
According to Juliet Ehimuan, Google’s Country Manager for Nigeria: “The Consumer Barometer remains the most comprehensive free tool for anyone looking to understand and compare how people use the internet around the world. For the 2014 edition, we worked closely with Hive, a London-based digital products and services design studio and the work involved 150,000 respondents in 46 different countries and profiled vertical sectors as clothing and footwear, home appliances, flights, hotels, cosmetics and groceries. Using state-of-the-art technology to crunch the mammoth data sets and make the interface feel more responsive and easier on the eye, we believe we’ve come up with our most detailed and user-friendly Consumer Barometer yet.”
In Nigeria, a growing number of consumers are switching from brick-and-mortar shops to online shopping thanks in large part to the increasing availability and affordability of mobile devices. This switch, says Taiwo Kola-Ogunlade, Google’s Communication and Public Affairs Manager for Anglophone West Africa, is sure to make the Consumer Barometer an invaluable asset to advertisers, agencies and journalists, who seek creative insights into the shopping behaviour of consumers in the country. “Our research shows that smartphones are becoming a vital part of online shopping in Nigeria with about 85% of shoppers using them for product research as against 30% who used computers and 6% using tablets.
According to the report, brands are more likely to reach their greatest online audience by focusing on marketing campaigns that are essentially aimed at mobile devices.
Darryl Linington
