That is an increase from 49 percent who said they did online research for a product or service in 2004.  The number of those who do research about products on an average day has increased from 15 of Americans in September 2007 to 21 percent in September 2010.  From February 2004, the number of adults conducting research on any given day has more than doubled, up from 9%.

Additionally, 24% of American adults say they have posted comments or reviews online about the product or services they buy, indicating a willingness to share their opinions about products and the buying experience with others.

“Many Americans begin their purchasing experience by doing online research to compare prices, quality, and the reviews of other shoppers,” said Jim Jansen, Senior Fellow at the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project and author of a new report about online product research.

“Even if they end up making their purchase in a store, they start their fact-finding and decision-making on the internet.”

Other highlights from Pew include:

*The percentage of those purchasing products online rose from 36% in May 2000 to 52% in the Project’s May 2010 survey.

*The percentage making travel reservations or bought travel services such as airline tickets, hotel rooms, or rental cars rose from 22% in May 2000 to 52% in the Project’s May 2010 survey.

*Product and service information sharing coincides with increasing use of social networking sites. 46% of Americans reporting the use of internet sites such as Facebook or LinkedIn, up from 5% in February 2005.

“E-commerce is now a 360-degree experience for shoppers,” said Jansen. “It begins with research that in turn leads to purchases that then trigger commentary and reviews by shoppers. Every part of the online experience seems to have become second nature to internet veterans.”

When conducting research for consumer packaged goods (CPG) online 27 percent of consumers say they prefer e-newsletters followed by 25 percent who favor search tools. Fourteen percent said they used general saving and shopping sites along with branded product sites.

When asked what online resource they would most likely sign up for/join to receive product information and promotional offers 47 percent said branded CPG e- newsletters, followed by branded CPG Web sites (39%) and online community/forum (14%).

When researching products online 48 percent said they were looking for information about the product, forty-six percent wanted savings on the product and just six percent wanted tips on how to use the product.

"These poll results show that there are tremendous opportunities for CPG marketers to reach consumers online, especially through branded e-Newsletters," said Jere Doyle, President and CEO of Prospectiv. 

"General savings and shopping sites as well as branded product sites can also attract consumer interest provided CPG marketers focus on populating these sites with product information, product savings offers and tips on how to use specific products."
 

Use Of Online Data Providers To Increase

The survey found that 82 percent of market researchers in North America and 87 percent in Europe are predicting their use of online respondent providers will increase in the next 12 months.  This compares with 76% and 85%, respectively, when Greenfield Online-Ciao Surveys completed its last Online Research Barometer in November 2005.

"The good news is that market researchers plan to continue to increase their use of online studies to fulfill their research requirements," stated Albert Angrisani, President and Chief Executive Officer.

"In addition, it is gratifying to see the healthy overall percentage market researchers are devoting to B2B work as Greenfield Online-Ciao Surveys has made it a priority to expand our global B2B product offering to meet the demand we see in the marketplace today. With B2B research commanding 34% and 25% of market research efforts in North America and Europe, respectively, this confirms that our strategy to focus on growing our B2B practice is right on target."

The top two reasons for conducting market research online were time, cited by 81 percent of the North American market researchers and 78 percent of Europeans, followed by competitive pricing (76% and 76%, respectively). North Americans were interested in access to complex target sample groups (62%). Europeans were interested in the ability to access respondents internationally. For both North America and Europe, being able to recruit large sample groups, and the ability to use multi-media elements in questionnaires were also cited as important considerations for the use of online research.

"The Barometer data reveals that in the future, European market researchers expect to use less of other methodologies such as telephone (30%) and face-to-face interviews (27%) in favor of online as a preferred research methodology," stated Nicolas Metzke, Managing Director Ciao Surveys.

"This bodes well for further conversion from offline to online research in the future."