How consumers use technology
&
It’s impact on their lives.

Contents
• 1. Introduction
• 2. Access to the Internet
• 3. Digital devices used by audiences
• 4. How customers search for information
• 5. What consumers buy online
• 6. Online video consumption
• 7. Consumer trends
• 8. Summary
• Bibliography

Introduction
Where are we? Where are we going? How will we get
there? are questions we ask at the beginning of a
journey.
Your business is always on a journey, and the internet is
the road.
To get safely to your destination, you need to
understand where the internet is, where it is going and
how it can help you get there.

2. Access to the Internet (1995 to 2020)
We all know the internet has grown massively or exponentially over the last number of years. But what are the facts?
16m users grew to 4.57 billion users in 25 years.
DATE NUMBER OF USERS
% WORLD
POPULATION
INFORMATION
SOURCE
December, 1995 16 millions 0.4% IDC
December, 1996 36 millions 0.9% IDC
December, 1997 70 millions 1.7% IDC
December, 1998 147 millions 3.6% C.I. Almanac
December, 1999 248 millions 4.1% Nua Ltd.
December, 2005 1,018 millions 15.7% Internet World Stats
Dec, 2009 1,802 millions 26.6% Internet World Stats
Dec, 2011 2,267 millions 32.7% Internet World Stats
Dec, 2012 2,497 millions 35.7% I.T.U.
Dec, 2013 2,802 millions 39.0% Internet World Stats
Dec, 2014 3,079 millions 42.4% Internet World Stats
Dec, 2015 3,366 millions 46.4% Internet World Stats
Dec. 2016 3,696 millions 49.5% Internet World Stats
Dec 2017 4,156 millions 54.4% Internet World Stats
Dec 2018 4,313 millions 55.6% Internet World Stats
Jan, 2020 4,574 millions 58.7% Internet World Stats

How we accessed the internet has also changed!

Access to the internet.
How has Ireland fared?
Nearly 80% of the population use the internet
every day, and
99% of persons in the 16 to 29 years age group use
the internet,
compared with 68% of individuals aged 60 to 74
years.
CSO 2019

CSO

We can also see that “households with internet access”
in Ireland is very high at 91%.
CSO

And usage is broadly similar across the Country
CSO
CSO

The following graph shows the use of the internet,
classified by age and frequency of use.
CSO

3. How do we access the internet?
What type of device do we use?
CSO

In Ireland in 2019;
smartphones were used to access the internet by 88% of
individuals.
97% of individuals aged 16 to 29 years used smartphones to
access the internet.
38% of individuals used a laptop, while 26% of individuals
used a tablet.
(Note that respondents may use multiple devices to access the internet away from home or work.) CSO

Access to the internet;
Type of device used 2018 2019
Mobile phone (or smartphone) 85 88
Laptop 20 38
Tablet 16 26
Other devices 3 8
Didn't access internet away from home or work 11 8
CSO

4. How customers search for information
Google was the king, but now it has a competitor:

Google Chrome browser is the leader in the mobile internet browser market, with a share of
62.03 percent (StatCounter Global Stats, 2019).
The market dominance of Google Chrome is somewhat expected, considering three out of
every four mobile phones worldwide run on Android and that until late 2018, Google
Chrome came pre-installed on all Android phones and tablets.
Google Chrome’s mobile internet browser market share is more than three times that of
second-placed Apple’s Safari, which has a market share of just over 20 percent.
The numbers are evidence of Google Chrome and Safari’s firm grip on the mobile internet
browser market.
To put their dominance into perspective, consider this internet statistic: eight out of ten
mobile internet users browse with either Chrome or Safari.
But before launching into mobile marketing on Google Chrome for your ecommerce
business, it’s important to consider your target audience and market.

5. What consumers buy online.
CSO

What consumers buy online.
Online reservations (hotels, holiday, airline, cinema), are now common place online.
Online shopping is great where products from pizza to dresses or household furniture is
available with speedy delivery.
The most common type of goods or services purchased by internet users in Ireland in 2019
was Clothes or sports goods (51%).
The next most common types of internet purchases were Holiday accommodation (47%) and
other travel arrangements (45%).
CSO

How much do we spend online?
Graphic by Coohola.

42% of Irish people persons bought or renewed existing insurance
policies online.
In 2019, 33% of internet users said that they had Arranged
accommodation from another private individual (such as a room,
apartment, house, holiday cottage, etc.) via a dedicated website or
app, such as AIRBNB. This was an increase of five percentage
points on 2018.
CSO

6. Online video consumption
Videos have become an inseparable part of our lives.
The sheer volume of video content online is growing, as these stats
demonstrate;

81% of businesses use video as a marketing tool — up from 63%
over the last year (Hubspot)
Mobile video consumption rises by 100% every year. (Insivia)
78% of people watch online videos every week, and 55% view online
videos every day. (HubSpot)
YouTube is the second most popular website after Google. (Alexa)
Users view more than 1 billion hours of video each day on YouTube.
(YouTube)
Viewers retain 95% of a message when they watch it in a video,
compared to 10% when reading it in text. (Insivia).

As more social networks follow Facebook’s lead and prioritize
video content, the importance of video messaging across all
channels has increased.
65% of people use YouTube to help them solve a problem. Want
to build a house or remove weird parasites from your eye?
YouTube might have the answer. (Google)
∙Videos attact 300% more traffic and help to nurture leads.
(MarketingSherpa)
∙A website is 53 times more likely to reach the front page of
Google if it includes video. (Insivia)

92% of mobile video consumers share videos with others.

How consumers’ use of video has changed over the past 5 years.

Video marketing has become an industry in itself

7. Consumer Trends
New emerging technologies will continue to cause disruption.
A 2019 PCW survey highlights that shoppers are embracing new
technologies.
Globally, ‘voice’ has the potential to become the new ‘mobile’.
Retailers need to consider the integration of ‘voice’ into marketing
campaigns as this new wave of technology takes hold. According to PCW
“through data analytics and artificial intelligence, the transactional nature of the retailer
shopper relationship will produce more insightful and actionable data”.
30% of consumers purchased online, weekly or more often, in 2018,
compared to 24% in 2017 (a 25% increase in 12 months).
Mobile shopping: One in five are shopping via mobile weekly or more
frequently, a figure that has doubled since 2017. PCW.

The internet of things (I oT)
PCW.

Internet of Things
IoT is simple. It’s about connecting devices over the internet, letting
them talk to us, applications, and each other.
The popular, if silly, example is the smart fridge.
The reality is that Home Automation ( smoke/intruder alarms that alert
the relevant authorities, set your heating, etc.), medical devices
(clothes/watches that take your vital signs/send alerts when in
difficulty), vehicles (that drive themselves/send alerts).
The list is endless, just think about it for a second.

IoT? Just think about the possibilities

Conclusion
The internet and email started out small and was immaterial to most
businesses. (We saw that in 1995 only 0.4% of the World’s population
was connected and e-commerce was not even thought of.)
Wow! How things have changed; 4.5 billion people are now connected
worldwide and 91% of our home market have internet access (99% of
young adults).
The internet user is mobile, be it smartphones, laptop or tablet. They
access information in ever changing ways. Google is still No. 1, but
youtube and video is gaining fast, but both could be overrun by voice
activated devices in the near future.
Everything that you can buy in a “bricks and mortar shop” is available
online & online sales have decimated sales in many industries.

Music is downloaded, food is bought and delivered straight to the door,
clothes are bought and returned (on a whim).
If you are not selling your product or service online prepare to close
down (unless your consumer physically needs to be present on your
premises to consume your product ie. hair and beauty, the social
experience of coffee/ food out with friends etc.)
We saw 42% of Irish people bought or renewed their insurance online
in 2019.
4/5 of businesses now use video as a marketing tool.
In short;
Professional digital marketing, incorporating video increases a
computer search engine optimisation and leads to greater sales.

Join in, get ahead or be like the countless bricks and mortar
businesses that no longer exist.
Extra-vision who? Mothercare, Mamas and Papas, Forever 21,
Thomas Cook, Karen Millen, Jack Wills, LK Bennett, Laura
Ashley, HMV, Toys R Us, House of Fraser all filed for protection
from creditors or collapsed in the last 18 months.

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