Google Search’s Role in Initiating Online Transaction

GfK survey institution suggested that Google successfully defines a new behavior called “micro-moment”. Google Indonesia’s Industry Head Henky Prihatna often refers it to a moment when consumers use mobile internet to quickly fulfill their daily needs, shopping online for instance.

“What we want to underline is that every journey was started by Google. We received it (the statement) from a research towards consumers who start their search at Google and continue it with more detailed exploration until the whole transaction is done,” Prihatna said.

Google appointed Gfk to conduct a face-to-face survey towards 2.500 respondents in Jabodetabek, Bandung, Semarang, and Surabaya. The surveyors then asked for the permit of investigating the installed apps to 600 of them. The research was conducted from November 2014 until February 2015.

The survey shows that in Jakarta, Bandung, Semarang, and Surabaya 61% of people have smartphone and use it five hours a day in average, while the peak hours happen at night. They access up to 16 apps/sites 46 times a day, and most of them access the app for 26 days within a month.

The survey also assessed the online shopping habit in travel, clothes, and hair treatment segment. There were several important points encountered, including the importance of online and offline approaches for urban people, the combination of search engine and aggregator as information provider, and the complexity of consumers’ shopping experience.

“Ideally, the business must be accessible both online and offline. The current purchasing process is highly complicated, so make sure that consumers get the experience of easy and convenient shopping from searching the products until ordering and paying the deal,” Prihatna commented.

Elevenia, Google’s partner, enjoys the facility Google offers as it receives increase in term of online sales. As Elevenia’s VP Marketing Division Madeleine Ong De Guzman stated, 70% of Elevenia’s consumers are urban people who live in Jakarta and have mid-to-high level of income. In fact, 40-50% of Elevenia’s daily sales are in fashion segment, which have reached 15 thousand times to date.

“Consumers’ current behavior in Indonesia is mobile. It’s started with collecting information, doing the comparison and stuff, and making the order once consumers are confident with the products,” Guzman said.

Mobile sites are the main reference

Online marketplaces like Elevenia are still smartphone users’ favorite to compare price, products and other stuff. So as travel aggregators like TripAdvisor.

This is surely a challenge for marketers who want to cover urban people with better economic condition; on how to create a relevant ads for consumers to let them finishing the right answer for their every need on smartphone.