studies

For the first time ever the majority of purchasers does online research before purchasing. The online purchase share shows limited growth for most products, however online research grows strongly and consistently across all countries and products.

Key Findings

• Online purchase mainly grows in travel and media, however online research grows strongly and consistently across all countries and products.
• Online research grows equally strong amongst online and offline purchasers and is consistent amongst countries and products as well.
• Products of higher value show both more online research and more online purchase than lower value products.

The Global Business Map provides a country profile for 48 countries on 6 different continents. The country profiles give an overview of fundamental country facts and specific market insights. We have collected those metrics most relevant for uncovering market potential and to help you recognise business opportunities specific to your company. This guide also provides an introduction to a range of products and tools available to you at Google, which are each explained briefly to help you get acquainted with the different ways in which you can reach out and connect with your target markets.

Each country page contains the following data:

• Basic Facts: official country name, capital, area, top-level domain, official or most spoken language, local currency, age distribution and GDP in terms of purchasing power parity and rank. GDP in each country has been expressed in US Dollars.
• Demographics: Population (total, growth and country rank), a breakdown of the age distribution according to gender and age group, median age.
• Internet statistics: The Internet penetration of the population, the total number of broadband and fixed Internet subscriptions, as found by the International Telecommunications Union.
• Google Contact: The email address that you can use to get in touch with our local representatives. They will be happy to give you more insight into the statistics you can find in the pages here and connect your ideas with the appropriate Google products.

This research offers unique insights into the usage of internet enabled devices (PCs, smartphones, tablets, etc.) as well as internet & broadband penetration and online behaviour. The enumeration survey was conducted during Q1 2012 in 40 markets and this is the overview presentation on 11 Northern and Central Europe (NACE) markets.

Key results:

• Growing smartphone & tablet penetration in all NACE markets.
• In Norway, Sweden and UK every second adult uses a smartphone.
• In most NACE-countries mobile networks are the most often used channel to go online via smartphone.
• In every market laptops are more common than desktops – Norway has highest laptop share.
• Across all countries (private) internet usage is on a high level. In the Netherlands, Norway and Denmark private usage reaches 90%.

With Switzerland's smartphone penetration now at 43% and 56% of smartphone owners accessing the Internet every day from their device, mobile has become an indispensable part of our daily lives. Google partnered with Ipsos OTX Media CT to understand how the growing adoption of smartphones has transformed consumer behavior from media consumption to commerce to connecting with the world around us. These insights can help advertisers understand how to best use smartphones to engage with their customers. Here's what we found:

• Smartphone users are multi-tasking their media with 82% using their phone while doing other things such as watching TV (50%). 91% of smartphone users look for local information on their phone and 90% take action a result.
• Smartphones are critical shopping tools with 96% having researched a product or service on their device. 29% of smartphone users have made a purchase on their phone.
• Mobile ads are noticed by 86% of smartphone users. Smartphones are also a critical component of traditional advertising as 69% have performed a search on their smartphone after seeing an offline ad. Review the full study to understand the business implications and opportunities for marketers.

This study analyzes the general travel behaviour, booking behaviour and research patterns of travellers in Switzerland.

Key findings:

• Swiss onliners are frequent travellers: 85% spent at least one holiday trip in the past year.Internet is the most important booking channel for travel purchases
• Search engines are widely used in every research stage. 7 out of 10 online researchers start on search in order to find information on travel products

This study will help you understand more about how consumers in Switzerland use various information sources, including the internet, when making finance purchases.

Key findings:

• Offline contracting is the prevailing purchase method in the finance vertical. However, online contracting is established as well and particularly strong for shares, health and travel insurances
• The internet is a popular channel for processing banking transactions with 8 out of 10 Swiss onliners using online banking
• Online research prior to purchase is relevant for all analysed products

This study will help you understand more about how consumers in Switzerland research and purchase travel online.

Key findings:

• Swiss onliners are frequent travellers: 85% spent at least one holiday trip in the past year and 51% spent more than one
• The internet is the most important booking channel for travel activities – particularly popular for air travel and accommodation bookings
• Bookings in the travel vertical are accompanied by an in-depth research process characterized by a parallel usage of online and offline information sources.
• 7 out of 10 online researchers start on search engines in order to find information on travel products.

This study will help you understand more about how consumers in Switzerland research and purchase CPG and Retail products online.

Key findings:

• Online search is relevant within all CPG and retail product categories.
• Online purchase is an established purchase method across all categories – most popular in the category entertainment with more than one third regular online buyers.
• Across all categories more than 25% of the search engine users claim having clicked on sponsored links and more than 40% of those who clicked on sponsored links made a purchase afterwards.