Buying Australian Property using the internet 88% - but probably closer to 98%
The Internet has become an essential and indispensable tool in the property search process with 88% of home buyers using it to search for homes, with the majority of buyers stating that the use of the Internet was the first step taken during the home buying process.
The minority of property buyers who were not internet savvy, reported employing the help of friends and family to search and show them properties over the internet because they were ristricted to print media and real estate shop front windows putting them at a disadvantage.
Property-Real Estate buyers are relying heavily on online sources and their agents to provide information, with decreasing use of traditional sources such as newspapers, open house inspections and shop front windows. Property buyers typically spend 12 weeks searching for a home and preview an average of 12 properties before deciding on their purchase.
Mobile phones and tablets have emerged as the preferred way to search online for shopping ideas, shoppers are always online, and only a finger-stroke away from computers at work, mobile phones on the train and tablets on the lounge at home to access websites.
And it's not just buying property, I have personally purchased houses via the internet but also my last few cars, my sunglasses, cloths, I even purchased my dog "Arthur" over the internet and I'll probably find my next ex-wife there as well?
Data collected by Google looking at online trends and behaviour show for the first time a majority of shopping-related online searches were conducted away from a traditional desktop computer. 'It all boils down to the uptake in mobile and the centrality of mobile phones to people's shopping decisions,'' said Google head of retail, Ross McDonald. He said Google figures revealed 53 per cent of online shopping searches came from these handheld devices, such as mobile phones and tablets, the first pre-Christmas period in Australia a majority of this online activity was done away from computers and laptops.
''People are moving across the day from a laptop or desktop at work to a mobile when they are on the go or a tablet in the evening,'' Mr McDonald said, and Australian shoppers are typically using a variety of devices to now access online retail information to make their decisions. ''It's big screens versus small screens.
Small screen is often used to confirm a purchase or confirm the price very much at the end of the shopping process. ''The big screen, which is laptops and tablets, is for 'what type of product do I want to buy?', so product comparison and therefore which retailer can help me with that.'' Mr McDonald also referred to a growing class of consumers doing ''couch commerce''. ''Some people call it 'couch commerce', where the kids are in bed, TV is on, glass of wine and let's do a bit more of what [shopping] I was doing today or start looking for some shopping stuff.''
Google estimated that online sales of retail products for the year to November 2012 hit $12.6 billion, and was growing at an annual rate of about 27% and that is not allowing for the huge amount of money generated through indirect sales in property which would obviously increase this figure ten fold.
