Moreover, the survey reveals that around half of global respondents intend to make an online purchase within a 6 months period in categories like clothing (46%), airline (48%) and hotel reservations (44%).
Global online purchase intentions for the cosmetic category increased 6% to 31%, beginning with 2012. Moreover, groceries rose 5% to 27% and baby supplies jumped 12% to 20%. The pet category reached from 9% in 2012 to 21% in 2014.
Consumable products have lower online browse/buy intention rates than non-consumable products, but their browse-to-buy correlation rates are on par with non-consumables. In cosmetics, 33% of global respondents say they browse, and 31% say they buy.
Similarly, about 1/3 of global respondents say they browse and buy personal care products (31%/29%) and groceries (30%/27%). About ¼ browse and buy pet products (24%/21%) and baby supplies (23%/20%), and roughly one-fifth browse/buy flowers (20%/18%) and alcoholic drinks (20%/17%).
Products more conducive to online browsing than buying include: electronic equipment, mobile phones, computer hardware/software, sporting goods, videos/DVDs/games and cars/motorcycles. These products can carry a high price tag and often require a try-before-you-buy test run. The browse-to-buy difference for these products averages about 7%.
The study also notes that consumer appetite for online browsing is strongest in the largely developing regions of Latin America and Asia-Pacific, with both regions surpassing the global average for all 22 categories in the study.
However, while online browsing rates are highest in Latin America, online buying rates for the region are the lowest for just about every category in the study.
Conversely, online buying rates in Asia-Pacific are the highest of any region, so high that buying rates exceed browsing rates for more than half (14) of the categories.
Online browsing and buying percentages are similar in Europe, North America and the Middle East/Africa, with a few exceptions, based on availability and opportunity.
In North America and the largely developed region of Europe, shopping options proliferate, and online retailing represents another channel competing for market share.
On the other hand, in the Middle East/Africa region, lower-than-average online percentages can largely be attributed to opportunity or lack of it.
While computers are the favored device for online browsing and buying among respondents in all regions, mobile phones are a close second choice for respondents in the Middle East/Africa region, with 55% of respondents using the device for online shopping, 11% higher than the global average of 44%.
Similarly, mobile phone usage is popular in Asia-Pacific (52%) and Latin America (48%). 1/3 of European respondents (33%) and more than ¼ (27%) of North Americans use their mobile phones to shop.
The survey polled more than 30,000 internet respondents in 60 countries to examine the online shopping and purchasing intentions of consumers worldwide.
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