Yahoo: Showrooming in Hong Kong Outperforms Asia Markets

A joint mobile report by Yahoo and Mindshare reveals M-commerce stats for Hong Kong.

If you’ve walked into a store to test a product before buying elsewhere, you’re a showroomer. And most likely you’ve used a smartphone to do that. Showrooming is prevalent in Hong Kong.

48 percent of people in the city use mobile phones for showrooming and an enormous 85 percent used their smart devices for pre-purchase research, according to a joint mobile report by Yahoo and Mindshare.

This figure is above the global average of people that showroom at 33 percent or the 21 percent of them that do so using their phones. (Source: TNS Global Phenomenon of Showrooming)

The mobile study is set up to gain insights on mobile behavior and ways to engage users across devices for emerging markets such as India, Indonesia, and Mainland China.

David Jeffs, head of insights at Yahoo Southeast Asia and India, says that mobile tends to be an extension of desktops and marketers should try to get innovative on how it’s being used.

“Think about it as more than banner ads,” he adds and suggests that while banner advertising still works on mobile, they could consider designing more apps that fit with current consumer behavior.

Because showrooming is a popular mobile activity in Hong Kong, he also suggests that companies should consider investing in mobile search and optimized mobile websites.

Other M-commerce findings from the Yahoo report conducted between July to August for the Hong Kong market include:

  • 41 percent bought a product/ service online with their mobile phones.
  • 47 percent performed a banking activity on their smart device.
  • 26 percent used their smart device as a mobile wallet. (eg. NFC, sensor)
  • Smartphone is still the primary companion for users and more frequently used than tablets throughout the day.
  • The tablet is primarily used for entertainment and reading, with prime time between 8pm to 11pm.
  • During this peak usage period, users mainly go online to instant message/ chat, social networking, playing games, and reading.

However, 78 percent of online shopping in Hong Kong is still done via the PC.

This finding is among some of the emerging trends that Yahoo released at its annual Online Marketing Summit for marketing executives on Tuesday.

Taiwanese Green Tea Benefits from Yahoo’s Consumer Connect Ad Solution

Yahoo will also roll out its Consumer Connect solution for advertisers in Hong Kong as it explores partnership opportunities with a third-party data firm for the market.

In Taiwan, Yahoo partnered with Kantar World Panel and recently completed a campaign with Uni-President’s green tea product that was looking to increase brand awareness for its launch.

The campaign was said to be so successful that it increased sales by more than 80 percent and out of that, 60 percent were new customers.

Albert Wong, senior director for ad operations and technology for Yahoo Asia Pacific, explains that the ad solution allows marketers to track offline purchase behaviorial data from third-party research firms, which could be used alongside online data to measure campaign performance for sales impact or market share in near real-time.

He adds that it will be suitable for advertisers looking to do “branding performance” campaigns.

yahoohk

From left to right: Michael Bevans, head of advertiser and publisher solutions, Yahoo; Deepika Nikhilender, business planning leader, Mindshare APAC; Rico Chan, VP and GM for Yahoo HK; Albert Wong, senior director, Yahoo APAC ad operations & tech, and David Jeffs, head of insights at Yahoo Southeast Asia and India.

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