Asia’s shoppers, armed with smartphones, lead the way at showrooming

Asia’s shoppers are experts at “showrooming” – the phenomenon of looking at items at a brick-and-mortar store whilst simultaneously checking the prices available online.

According to data from Google’s Consumer Barometer survey (shown in a new post on Google’s APAC blog), this showrooming is most prevalent in less developed tech markets, where you might expect it the least.

The top showroomers are Vietnam’s shoppers. 40 percent of them stand in a store whilst cross-checking the prices online. South Korea is second.

But things change when it comes to actual ecommerce. That’s when, as you’d expect, more mature web markets come to the fore. South Korea and Hong Kong are top in terms of the percentage of people who use their smartphones to research online purchases…

…And then South Korea, Singapore, and China are the top three when it comes to actually purchasing things online on their phones.

Compared to the grey parts of the chart showing the US, UK, and Germany, Asia is clearly way ahead in terms of embracing mobile for both online and offline shopping. That’s why Asia is the only true “mobile-first” region.

See: New record for China’s biggest shopping day as Alibaba’s shoppers spend $9.3 billion in 24 hours