A survey conducted by Israeli company One Hour Translation in eight key world markets over recent days has found interesting statistics about the online purchasing habits of consumers in winter (January-February in seven countries, and June-August in Australia). The survey was jointly carried out with Google Consumer Surveys based on a representative sample of 800 respondents - 100 from each of the following countries: the US, the UK, Australia, Canada, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, and Japan.
An average of 34% of the participants answered that they buy more online in winter than at other times of the year. The country breakdown of their responses is as follows: in Canada, 44% of respondents answered that they buy online more heavily in January and February; in second place was the UK, where 43% stated that they bought more online in winter; in the US and the Netherlands, 36% of participants responded that they purchased more online in winter; in Australia, 34% buy more in the winter months followed by, 32% in Germany, 27% in Japan, and 23% in Italy.
An average of 46% of all participants responded that their online purchasing was steady throughout the year: 48% in the US, 42% in the UK, 53% in Australia, 29% in Canada, 55% in Italy, 47% in Germany, 41% in the Netherlands, and 56% in Japan.
An average of 15% of respondents answered that they did not buy more online in winter than at other times of the year, as follows: 13% in the USA, the UK and Japan, 10% in Australia, 17% in Canada, 12% in Italy, 19% in Germany, and 20% in the Netherlands.
Only 5% of all participants said that they did not purchase online at all: 3% of participants in the US, Australia, and the Netherlands, just 2% in the UK and Germany, 10% in Canada and Italy, and 4% in Japan.
One Hour Translation said the survey shows that consumers around the world adopt strategic approaches to their seasonal online purchases. A clear majority of consumers (an average of 80%) understand that the Christmas shopping period, which peaks in November and December, is not necessarily the optimal time to shop on the Internet and choose to wait for the New Year’s sales. About a third of all consumers find even more attractive end-of-season sale bargains in the months immediately after Christmas and concentrate their purchasing activity during that time. Roughly 46% of consumers search the Internet for sales bargains consistently throughout the year.
It is also reasonable to assume that, in the colder countries of the North, harsh, snowy winters encourage more consumers to stay home and acquire most of their purchases online during that season. One Hour Translation believes that this explains the elevated rate of online consumer purchases in winter in countries such as Canada (44%) and the UK (43%).
Consumers in Italy (23%) and Japan (27%) demonstrate the weakest tendency to increase their online purchasing in the winter season.
The survey results follow the results of a One Hour Translation survey completed in the fourth quarter of 2014 with 2,000 participants from Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Japan and French-speaking Canadians. According to that survey, 83% of Italians prefer to buy goods and services online in their native language, compared with 80% of Germans, 65% of the Dutch, 74% of French-speaking Canadians, and no less than 90% of Japanese people.
One Hour Translation co-founder and CEO Ofer Shoshan said, “The results of our new survey are extremely clear: companies selling online are well advised to concentrate their efforts in increasing online sales in the first quarter of the year, immediately after the Christmas period.
He added, "Organizations which concentrate their Internet sales efforts in January and February will be rewarded with numerous opportunities resulting from the preference of huge number of consumers to buy online at that time of year. In addition, our survey in late 2014, which found that consumers have a distinct preference for shopping online in their native language, indicates that one of the most effective ways of achieving sales growth at any time of year is to localize sales websites in the language of the target buyers. As the world’s largest online translation agency, One Hour Translation is well-equipped to advise customers on this issue and to help them increase their online sales in the peak-demand winter period, as well as at other times of year.”
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on January 27, 2015
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2015