WOM best for online shopping

Malaysia - Companies wanting to promote online shopping should focus on word-of-mouth strategies. In Malaysia, over half of the customers who shop online tend to rely on personal recommendation, according to Nielsen Global Online Survey.

Other main deciding factors are search engine results (37%) and special offers (34%).

According to Nielsen, online shoppers tend to stick to the shopping sites they are familiar with, with 60% saying they buy mostly from the same site. "If shopping sites can capture them early, and create a positive shopping experience, they will likely capture their loyalty and their money," Linda Lim, director of online research, said.

Despite concerns of credit card fraud, 70% of Malaysian internet users have purchased something online, and 39% of internet users in Malaysia have made at least one purchase online in the past month. But this figure is still lower than the global average of more than 50%, according to the survey.

"When The Nielsen Company conducted its first global survey into internet shopping trends two years ago, approximately 10% of the world's population (627 million) had shopped online. Within two years, this number has increased by approximately 40% (to 875 million)," Lim said.

Internet users in Malaysia mainly buy airline tickets/reservations (55%), followed by tours/hotel reservations (41%), and computer hardware (22%) in the past three months.

This differs significantly from global habits where the most popular and purchased items over the internet are books (41%), clothing/accessories/shoes (36%), videos/DVDs/games (24%), airline tickets (24%) and electronic equipment (23%).