Google Smart Shopper Survey: Users Returning to Physical Store Shopping
Foreks - Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) has concluded its Smart Shopper research, conducted since 2019 to understand consumer expectations and behaviors during their purchasing journey in Turkey.
This year's Smart Shopper 2024 study hosted significant findings regarding the rise of online research, the return of physical shopping, and the influence of new technologies such as artificial intelligence on shopping habits. Consumer behaviors throughout the purchasing journey continue to evolve. Google has monitored these expectations and shopping habits through the Smart Shopper research since 2019. The "Smart Shopper 2024" study provides a comprehensive global analysis of consumer shopping and research behaviors across seven product categories (Electronics, Home & Garden, Fashion, Food & Grocery, Beauty, Toys, Jewelry). The methodology involved applying online representation quotas based on age, gender, and region, determining a total of 2,100 participants distributed equally among product categories. Each participant was selected based on individual shopping behaviors and completed a survey relevant to only one category. The research indicates that smart technologies and online research play a decisive role in consumer preferences while highlighting the continued rise of omnichannel experiences and the tendency to return to physical shopping.
“Consumers are leveraging new technologies during their shopping journey,” stated Alpagut Çilingir, Google Turkey’s Retail and Technology Sector Leader, regarding the research: “Consumers are trending towards making more conscious and research-based decisions to use their budgets more efficiently. As Google, we aimed to contribute another significant study to our contributions to the Turkish economy and retail ecosystem. We first conducted the Smart Shopper research in 2019 to understand consumer expectations and analyze behaviors during the purchasing journey. The continuation of the rise of omnichannel shopping experiences and the inclination of consumers to benefit from new technologies while shopping are among the prominent results of this year's research. A notable finding this year is the decreased purchasing rate via social media compared to the previous year and the trend of returning to physical stores. Consumers’ preference for physical stores in certain categories indicates the ongoing need to directly experience products and the importance of the trust felt in physical shopping. We hope that the research we conducted will benefit the industry and we will continue our efforts to connect our users with accurate information.”
The rise of online research continues According to the research findings, 90% of consumers in Turkey gather information by conducting online research before making a purchase. The intensity of online research is particularly prominent in the consumer electronics and home & garden categories. Furthermore, 79% of consumers maintain a flexible journey by utilizing both online and physical channels during their shopping processes; the percentage of those who shop entirely online is 11%, while the percentage preferring only physical stores is 10%. In examining the breakdown of digital and in-store shopping, 66% of shopping occurs through digital channels, while 34% of purchases are made from physical stores across all categories in Turkey.
Users have started to prefer shopping in physical stores again A return to physical shopping is particularly observed in the fashion, home & garden, beauty, and toy categories. The importance of physical stores is rooted in the desire to see, feel, and try products in-store. 84% of consumers indicate that directly experiencing products in the store is important in their preference for physical shopping. Additionally, 83% of respondents believe that receiving the product immediately after purchasing it from the store is advantageous. These trends demonstrate that online and physical stores complement each other in the retail sector. The opportunity to directly experience products in-store provides consumers with confidence, while the growing prevalence of online research addresses the need for informed shopping. It is crucial for the retail sector to develop strategies that integrate these two shopping experiences to offer consumers a flexible and trust-inducing shopping experience.
Next-generation digital tools influence purchasing decisions According to the research findings, 79% of participants have utilized new technologies for inspiration while shopping in the past six months. Short-form videos, social media platforms, visual search tools, and artificial intelligence tools stand out as prominent channels during this process. 76% of survey participants use social media platforms to gather information about products. Social media continues to be a product discovery channel of interest to consumers, with 41% discovering products through short-form videos. The percentage of those directly purchasing products through social media has decreased from 43% to 37%. Google remains the primary search engine preferred by 99% of participants for product research.
In addition to the most frequently used touchpoints, 57% of survey respondents indicate that they use five or more channels to shop. Besides search engines and social media tools, 35% of participants use visual search tools like Google Lens to obtain more information about products, while 23% interact with chatbots on brand or retailer websites. Additionally, 13% of survey participants report engaging with chat-based AI tools. These findings show that users refer to various sources for product discovery and that social media and search engines play complementary roles.
Artificial intelligence technologies are transforming the shopping journey To closely examine changing shopping habits, Google Turkey conducted a survey with 1,500 participants on the use of artificial intelligence in the shopping journey, titled the AI Usage in Shopping Journey Survey. According to the results of this survey, 86% of online shoppers are aware of artificial intelligence. This rate reflects the tendency of online shoppers to be tech-savvy and open to AI solutions. Although respondents indicate that they use AI the least for shopping, they identify its usefulness most in areas such as product and price research (20%) and product comparison (19%) when directly asked.