1. About CCB
  2. About the Survey
    1. Methodology
    2. Questionnaire
  3. Interpreting the Data
  4. Glossary of Terms
  5. Press Coverage
  

Interpreting the Data

While interpreting the data included in the CCB, there are a few key pieces of information to bear in mind:

As data for the CCB was gathered via an online survey, respondents are likely to be more frequent online users. We have endeavored to counteract the potential effects of this bias with the use of the Omnibus survey, in which nationally representative consumers were asked general questions regarding frequency/intensity of internet usage and frequency of online purchase. With the Omnibus data, we were able to weight the CCB results and ensure a data set that would be representative (ie, less weighted towards heavy internet users.) Nevertheless, care must be taken when interpreting any questionnaire based survey results.

As with any survey, the results of the CCB depend heavily on how respondents interpreted the questions they were asked. For example, the types of activities that a respondent considers to be “research” may differ by person. There is evidence of this in the CCB data which shows that, while 31% of Spanish consumers reported researching online while purchasing their last audio device, 50% claimed to check stock availability online. This suggests that at least some respondents do not consider checking stock availability online to be a type of research.

While the base for all questions is consumers who have purchased a product within the selected vertical/products in the 12 months prior to interview, there are two frames of reference given to consumers when answering questions.

  • For questions falling under the Research Behaviour and Purchase Behaviour categories, consumers were asked to refer to the last time they purchased an item within the selected verticals/products. For example, 11% of Austrian consumers who made a purchase in the Automotive category in the past 12 months made that purchase online.
  • For questions falling under Online Shopping Perceptions, consumers were asked to consider their general opinions, unrelated to a specific purchase. For example, 61% of Austrian consumers who made a purchase in the Automotive category in the past 12 months said that, in general (ie across all categories, not just the automotive category), the internet is the first place they go when research products to buy.

Data relating to Purchase Willingness, Openness to Marketing, Research Resources, and Usage Satisfaction (under Online Shopping Perceptions) is based on responses to a five-point scale ranging from Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree (as well as an option for Don’t Know/Cannot Evaluate.) For the purpose of creating graphs, respondents were considered to agree with the statement if they answered either Agree or Strongly Agree

In some cases, data within the Research Behaviour and Purchase Behaviour may not sum to 100% as expected. There are two reasons for this:

  • Rounding – for simplicity, numbers have been rounded to the nearest whole integer
  • Vertical-level data cannot be summed. For example, adding the four ROPO categories across the aggregate category of Technology will not sum to 100%. This is because multiple product purchases can occur with a single vertical, each of which may have been researched and purchased differently. Similarly, the sum of Online and Offline (via any method) will not equal 100% on a vertical level.