Indirect channels driving service choice, says research

US — Consumers are ‘in the driving seat of their purchasing cycle’ as word-of-mouth drives online service choice, according to new research.

Cloud commerce provider Avangate’s New Services Economy Survey gathered views from 1,046 US adults in May of this year. Results showed that while 65% decided which online services to use based on word-of-mouth; 55% used online searches; 32% used peer review sites; the same proportion used social media; 30% used articles.

However, only 18% discovered and decided to use an online service based on the provider’s website, and only 13% based this choice on online advertising.

Other findings included:

10% of respondents used wearable tech: 80% of these were for fitness. But over half of respondents not owning wearables said they would be inclined to purchase them if they could extend with added features, such as personal shopping assistants or ability to make payments
58% of respondents would be more willing to pay for an online service or premium if they could test online with a free trial
Customer support is the biggest missing service feature from online service providers