Supplyant

I read a great post over at practicalecommerce.com which looked at what leading money saving words that people use when searching google. It really indicates beautifully what consumers are looking for when trying to save a few pennies.

The report was obviously weighted towards America as the word coupon was the most searched for phrase over discount, sale and free shipping.

So In the UK we substituted those words with more UK centric words.

SALE v DISCOUNT v CHEAP v FREE DELIVERY v VOUCHER

There is one big trend here. More people are looking for sales and less are looking for cheap. Surprisingly thought this fits in with the normal marketing rules during a recession. A prime reason for purchasing better products in a recession is that they are less likely to go wrong, break or be of poor quality.

Reliability is a highly prized virtue at the moment and branded items on sale offer a percieved better value than cheap products.

Another indicator of this is the rise in popularity of big brand shops on the Internet.  Consumers have to feel safe in the knowledge that  the company they are buying from will last as long as the item they purchase.

FREE DELIVERY v NEXT DAY DELIVERY v SATURDAY DELIVERY

More people are looking for free delivery than next day delivery and its growing at a huge rate. In fact searches for free delivery at Christmas were a massive 80% higher than next day delivery.  Looking at the same report for Free Delivery vs Low Price its the same situation.

So what do I do?

In the minds of consumers

• putting themselves out waiting for a delivery is OK as long as its cheaper
• cheap products are not OK
• consumers are not prepared to risk  money with an unsafe retailer.

The numbers would indicate that a free delivery option is a winner, even if you offer an extended delivery option for free.

If you dont you may be missing valuable traffic.

When your starting a new project its important to do your research and due diligence to understand  whats going on out in the big wide world of the internet.  Luckily Google has a great tool for visualising search trends.

Google Insight allows you to look at how many people are searching for a particular phrase over time. What this tool allows you to do is gain some great additional information about the market, which in turn gives you great insider knowledge to use in your business plan.

• Seasonal ups and downs in particular niches become really clear
• Which of your competitors is growing and which is shrinking
• How different brands compare over time
• Is a brand or market segment you’re looking at, growing or falling.

Example 1: Supporting the good online retailers.

Two wheel brands have adopted very different strategies with online retailers marketing.

Dotz provide great support to high quality online retailers. They see the benefits to the Dotz brand by working closely with retailers, who are then able to present their products in the best light, adding further value to the brand. Nice work from the distributor.

Wolfrace continue to support online retailers that over-discount and show the products in a poor light. The upshot is that the poor representation and over-discounting has devalued the brand. Wolfrace are now trying in-house retailing and should use the extra control this will offer them to begin rebuilding their brand.

This graph shows growth in interest in the brands.

Example 2: Seasonal trends in the DIY sector

Its incredible to see how closely Homebase and B&Q track over the years

Do you have any good examples for you market? click here to comment online