Online sales growth highlights digital importance

Research by Millward Brown has revealed that online sales are continuing to grow despite the recession, highlighting the importance of the digital consumer.

The company analysed WPP's Brandz database (the largest repository of brand knowledge in the world) and found that digital consumers have stronger relationships with brands than non-digital consumers.

Digital consumers are defined here as people who have bought from or searched for information about an individual category online.

The report shows that digital consumers generally have strong relationships with more brands.

In addition, some individual brands are disproportionately more appealing to digital consumers, highlighting the importance of understanding these differences within categories.

The research found that this difference among digital consumers was strongest for airline brand relationships, where digital consumers had nearly twice as strong brand relationships as their offline counterparts.

Other key categories where digital consumers had stronger relationships than non-digital consumers included IT hardware and software (48 per cent stronger), credit cards (33 per cent stronger) and fragrances (29 per cent stronger).

Another key finding is that digital consumers are more than twice as likely to be 'transmitters' - knowledgeable category consumers who influence others with their opinions.

Digital consumers are likely to be slightly younger and more affluent, on average, compared to non-digital and to place a higher value on creativity, excitement and having fun.

This information is critical to marketers who are trying to understand the buying patterns of today's digital consumers and leverage opportunities to target digital consumers.

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