Amazon beats Google in the eRetail search

by Michael King: Head of Reprise Digital South Africa, an IPG Mediabrands company

When thinking ‘search’, you’d be forgiven for assuming that Google leads the pack. A global study has shown that consumers begin their retail related searches on Amazon first (46%) followed by Google searches (34%). That may seem surprising considering that Google has traditionally dominated the online product search space – that is up until a few years ago when Amazon grew exponentially and became the front runner for retail related searches.

Between 2015 and 2018 Amazon grew from 46% to 54% with Google declining from 54% to 46%. Amazon is so popular that the site has grown 46% per annum with ad spend on the site reaching $6.3 Billion. These are impressive figures indeed, especially over such a short period of time.

Consumer purchasing behaviour has undoubtedly changed over the past few years with more and more people (87% in 2018) beginning their product searches on a digital channel vs 71% in 2017. If we look at local online behaviour here in South Africa we can absolutely see the same pattern emerging.

There’s no clear indication (yet) that Amazon will reach South Africa’s shores but this is telling consumer behaviour that retailers should be cognisant of. It’s interesting to note that as an example, Takealot has had been growing at a compound rate of 107% over the last few years, and by all indications e-retail behaviour in South Africa is following the same kind of trend.

It’s certainly an interesting space for brands to be playing in.