KPMG’s Consumers and Convergence Survey: Consumers turn to personal gadgets for shopping

When out shopping these days, consumers are ever more likely to turn to their personal computers (PCs), smartphones and tablet PCs to find gifts, check recommendations, compare prices, access online coupons, and ultimately pay for their purchases, according to the results from KPMG International’s 5th Annual Consumers and Convergence Survey.

As many as 73 percent of the Romanian respondents declared that the time spent for online shopping or getting information about products and services is up to two hours, five percent of them preferring to use their mobile phones for this purpose.

 “Five years running, our global Consumers and Convergence survey has showed that the pace of change continues to accelerate,” says Aurelia Costache, management consulting partner at KPMG in Romania.

 “Consumers worldwide are increasingly willing to adopt new technologies and digital business models, and that spells big opportunities and risks for service providers, retailers, media companies, banks and the host of other players vying for a piece of the digital value chain,” she says.

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 Consumers, both locally and globally, again showed an increasing appetite to adopt new technologies and business models. In Romania, 15 percent of respondents declared that they are also accessing these services by using their smartphones and three percent by using tablets.

 Television viewing also saw a decline with 51 percent of respondents (also true for the Romanian respondents) now preferring to watch TV and movies online on their computers and 24 percent on their smartphones (only 13 percent in Romania).

 However, while consumers are happy to adopt new technologies, they are increasingly resistant to paying for the associated online content and service. Having grown used to ‘free’ models, 73 percent of people said they would not be willing to pay for access to online content, up from 57 percent last year.

Otilia Haraga