Online shopping has made the life easy. One of the greatest benefits of online shopping is the ability to read the reviews of products or services, given by experts or fellow-shoppers. This kind of opinions are most important when it comes to purchasing consumer electronics. A report given by the Nielsen Company on online shopping trends in India stated that as of 2010, 57% of online respondents had been considering reviews before buying products or services online.
It was found that 11% of the monthly shopping expenditure had been spent on online purchases by Indian consumers. Most of the consumers trust recommendations from reference groups for making online purchases. Nearly 71% Indians had been referring from family and 69% from friends when making decisions for online purchases. Online product reviews were recommended by only 29% of the Indian consumers. However, the report stated that half of the Indian consumers had used social media sites to help them make online purchase decisions.
As it is known by everybody, it is very important to look for the online reviews and opinions from experts while purchasing electronic goods online. Reviews on consumer electronics (57%), cars (45%) and software (37%) rounded out the top three most important online influences by consumers of the country when making a purchase.
People were also interested to share the negative experience of products and services purchased. More than 4 out of 10 persons in India were found to give negative experiences online when compared to the positive experiences through reviews.