What Ethnicity Says About How We Shop

In July, eMarketer released “US Hispanics Online: Demographics.” The report included some population growth estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau, which indicate staggering growth estimates for Hispanic Americans (27.6%) and Asian Americans (25.1%) over the last eight years (2000-2007). Hispanics overtook African and other Black Americans as the second largest minority group in the U.S.

As these unique population segments continue to grow, it’s important marketers understand the differences and likenesses of the groups most important to their efforts. With that in mind, Performics teamed up with ROI Research to better understand differences in shopping behavior across ethnicities, with a specific slant on the role of the Internet and search engines in this process.

More than 8,500 survey responses were collected from eRewards’ panel of more than 2.8 million active members in the Performics/ROI Research study. Respondents indicated similar behaviors and buying decisions across many of the survey’s focus areas, but some differences did emerge.

Defining the differences
One of the largest discrepancies between ethnicities came in response to the yes/no question, “Whether I purchase online or offline, I always use search as part of the process.” Only 43% of White/Caucasians Americans indicated this to be true, but nearly 62% of Asian Americans said they would. More than half of Hispanic/Latino Americans and African and other Black Americans indicated yes – they always use search as part of the process.

Although this particular statistic generated one of the largest divides across ethnicities, the trend of White/Caucasian Americans lagging behind the three minority ethnic groups remained consistent across most questions posed.

When asked about using search to find out where to make an offline purchase, for example, White/Caucasian Americans again lagged behind other groups, with only 48% indicating they used search to accomplish this shopping task. Sixty% of Hispanic and/Latino Americans, 56% of Asian Americans and 55% of African and other Black Americans concurred.

The margin narrowed slightly when asked about using search prior to making an online purchase. More than half of all respondents indicated yes, they do use search engines to complete this shopping task. Asian Americans led the way, with 66% indicating they did. Once again, White/Caucasian Americans pulled up the rear with 55% indicating they used search to gather information prior to making an offline purchase.

Regardless of ethnicity, respondents were slightly less likely to use a search engine to conduct research prior to making an offline purchase than they were when researching a purchase they’d later make online.

General use of search engines
As one might expect when querying a group of online Americans, all respondents reported heavy use of search across a wide range of purposes.

The following reported using search to find the best price:

• 70% of Asian Americans
• 68% of Hispanic/Latino Americans
• 62% of African/Black Americans
• 58% of White/Caucasian Americans

More than half of all ethnic groups use search to learn about a product after seeing an ad:

• 62% of Hispanic/Latino Americans
• 60% of African/Black Americans
• 57% of Asian Americans
• 52% of White/Caucasian Americans

Stuart Larkins ([email protected]) is senior vice president of search operations at DoubleClick Performics.