Online shoppers changing their opinions of brands, study says

The more time consumers spend shopping online, the more likely they are to change their opinions of brands, says a study conducted by The Dieringer Research Group of Milwaukee. 40% of online adults, or 36.9 million, changed their opinions of brands due to information they gathered on the Internet, according to the 2002 American Interactive Consumer Survey. Brand categories most susceptible to changing opinions were cars and airlines, while retail consumer packaged goods and pharmaceutical products were less impacted.

“The survey shows that the Internet is a force to be reckoned with,” says Tom Miller, who oversaw the study for Dieringer. He notes that the changed opinions can be either positive or negative, but that in many cases changed opinions led shoppers to switch brands.

In the retail car business, 42% of online adults changed their opinions of brands, and 21% switched brands, Miller says. In CPG items, 10% of online adults changed their opinions, and 5% switched brands. In pharmaceutical products, 26% changed opinions and 9% switched brands.

Guide to E-Commerce Technology

The tendency to change opinions of brands rises along with income levels and the number of years that consumers have shopped online, Miller said. He noted that 48% of adults who have shopped online for more than five years reported changing their opinions of brands, compared to 28% among new online shoppers. He also said households with incomes of $75,000 or more were more likely to change their opinions.

“The percentage of online adults who say that online information has changed their brand opinions and purchases has risen steadily ever since we began tracking it in 1998,” said Pam Renick, executive vice president of Dieringer. From 1998 to 2001, the share of online adults who switched brands grew from 27% to 38%, she said.

The 2002 survey also found an even higher tendency to switch brands among shoppers who complete purchases offline after seeking product information online, Renick said.

The survey of 4,000 U.S. Internet users covered 10 product and service categories. Dieringer acquired the American Internet User Survey last month from New York-based Fulcrum Analytics, formerly known as Cyber Dialogue. Dieringer helped to design the original American Internet User Survey and has conducted all of its field work since its inception in 1995, the company said.