“These inisghts and trends are key to helping marketers create effective and forward-looking go-to-market strategies to help forecast product demand and improve audience engagement throughout the year,” said Graeme Beardsell, Experian Asia Pacific’s chief customer development & marketing officer.
Insights of relevance to marketers include new shopping categories like online auctions and group buying sites. TaoBao was the champion among all auction sites with 35.9 per cent share of online visits, surpassing Yahoo Auctions Hong Kong (31.9 per cent), Paipai (14.3 per cent), and eBay (7.4 per cent).
Data also showed Hong Kongers conduct e-shopping for travel packages. Taobao Trip ranked top among all online travel agencies with 10.7 per cent, followed by Ctrip.com with 8.2 per cent and Qunar.com with 7.2 per cent.
As e-commerce grows, the opportunities are there for organisations that target consumers correctly, according to Beardsell (pictured).
“Social networking sites are still major drivers of traffic to clients' websites," Beardsell added. "Whilst Facebook¹s phenomenal growth rate might be declining, its influence and aggregate time spent continues to grow."
In gadget-crazy Hong Kong, IT enthusiasts researched the latest gizmos on sites such as Apple (46.8 per cent), Review33.com (7.19 per cent), and Samsung Hong Kong (6.51 per cent).
Apple-related search terms including 'iphone' and 'itunes' occupied seven out of the top 10. In particular, Samsung has been a fast mover with an accelerating share of visits to both its Hong Kong site (176 per cent increase) and global site (214 per cent increase).
Fashion and beauty brands that were top-of-mind among consumers include ASOS, Elle Hong Kong, Chanel, Body Shop, Laneige, and Clinique. International high-street clothing brands were searched for more than luxury brands.
Uniqlo, H&M, and Zara made up three out of the top five most-searched terms in the period ending 31 December 2011. This is a very different picture from the same period last year, where Chanel, Gucci and LV featured in the top five.
"Online retailers now have more data than ever on which to build relevancy and improve the level of sophistication in campaigns," Beardsell concluded. "Behavioral data from web browsing and transactional data from e-commerce reveal what consumers really want."
In an extremely competitive online environment, these will help in ensuring sustained brand visibility and awareness for marketers.
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