Amazon dominates search, social media in consumer electronics retail

More than 1.5 million searches were made for consumer electronics online in November and in terms of visibility, Amazon dominated in both search and social media according to the latest research, Brown Goods – Issue 10, by leading independent specialist search and social media marketing agency, Greenlight.

Brown goods are relatively light electronic consumer durables such as TVs, radios, digital media players, and computers, as distinct from heavy consumer durables such as air conditioners, refrigerators, which are called white goods.

Greenlight's report profiles search behaviour in the brown goods sector, covering cameras and camcorders, DVD players and recorders, entertainment products, PCs and laptops and TVs.

The research analyses which brands, retailers and review sites were the most visible in the both natural and paid media results and therefore had the greatest share of consideration, when UK consumers searched for brown goods on Google.co.uk. The report also assesses which brands interacted well on social media networks.

Greenlight's analysis established that in November 2011: 

• The keyword 'iPod' was queried 165,000 times, accounting for 11 per cent of all searches made for the sector. 'Laptops' was the second most popular search term (135,000 searches), followed by 'iPod nano' with 60,500
  
• Combined, searches pertaining to both the PC & laptop and entertainment sub-sectors accounted for nearly 70 per cent of brown-goods related searches (36 per cent and 33 per cent, respectively)
  
• Amazon was the most visible website in Greenlight's natural search listings, achieving a 45 per cent share of voice. Likewise in the paid media space, where it secured a 53 per cent share of visibility
  
• Amazon also ranked at the top of Greenlight's integrated search league table, as it achieved a dominant percentage share of visibility in both the natural search listings and paid media space
  
• Amazon topped Greenlight's social media analysis, achieving a Klout score of 81. It was followed by Dell and Tesco, with a score of 61 and 60, respectively

Online retail has increasingly been winning the consumer pound over the high street. According to comparison website Kelkoo, UK e-sales jumped 14 per cent to nearly £50bn in 2011 and are forecast to reach £56.5bn by the end of 2012. This highlights the fact that brands and retailers with an online presence need to ensure they are also visible to consumers who go online with the intent to search, find and purchase products. (See: Despite UK recession, white goods pull in nearly 1 mn pre-Christmas online searches)