Online Buying Intentions in Personal Care

Online purchase intentions around the world have doubled since 2011 for many durable and entertainment-related categories, according to a new study conducted online by Nielsen. Nearly half of global respondents intend to make an online purchase in the next six months in high-prominence categories including clothing (46%) and airline (48%) and hotel (44%) reservations.

So what about the personal care industry? The online market for groceries and other consumable products—while not as strong as non-consumable categories—is starting to show promise, too, said Nielsen. Since 2011, global online purchase intentions for the cosmetic category increased 6 percentage points to 31% while baby supplies jumped 12 percentage points to 20%.

The Nielsen Global Survey of e-commerce polled more than 30,000 Internet respondents in 60 countries to examine the online shopping and purchasing intentions of consumers worldwide. The study provides clarity about global consumers’ buying intentions for both consumable and non-consumable categories in the growing e-commerce landscape. When it comes to shopping for clothes, event tickets, books and toys, or making reservations for tours and hotels, there is mostly a one-to-one correlation between online searching and shopping—those who browse online also buy online. Consumable products have lower online browse/buy intention rates than non-consumable products, but their browse-to-buy correlation rates are just as strong. In cosmetics, 33% percent of global respondents say they browse, and 31% say they buy. Similarly, about one-third of global respondents say they browse and buy personal care products (31%/29%).

“Strong online browse-to-buy conversion rates for fast-moving consumer goods translates to loyal repeat customers for these categories,” said Burbank. “While these categories are still in the early stages of online adoption, these correlation rates signal great news for online retailers. Now is the time to create omni-channel experiences for consumers who are actively using both digital and physical platforms to research and purchase, as consumers increasingly don’t make a distinction between the two.”

The Nielsen Global Survey of E-commerce was conducted between Feb. 17-March 7, 2014, and polled more than 30,000 consumers in 60 countries throughout Asia-Pacific, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, Africa and North America.