Google may be the de facto search engine for looking up pad thai recipes or for who won the 1982 American League MVP (Robin Yount), but when it comes to searching for products, it’s not even close. Amazon is dominating. In fact, nearly half of Americans start their product searches at Amazon.com while only 22% start at Google – a 122% difference.
Unsurprisingly, Amazon Prime members begin their searches at Amazon in ridiculous numbers. Nearly 4 out 5 people who use Prime weekly (at minimum) start their searches with Amazon. Equally impressive: Even among non-Prime users, Amazon still takes 37% of the first-look shopping searches.
Age shows some interesting takeaways, with Generation X – those Americans between the ages of 35 and 54 – going to Amazon first the most. This dovetails with Prime membership, as that generational cohort is the most likely to also have a Prime membership. One quirk in the chart below is how 18- to 24-year-olds show a higher tilt toward Google (despite still being predominantly on Team Amazon.) One potential reason? They’re off to college or otherwise out of the nest, and now lack access to mom and dad’s Amazon Prime account.
Concern over price – or rather, a lack thereof – is also a major victory for Amazon. Simply put, the less price conscious a shopper is, the more likely they are to start their search on Amazon.
Two other takeaways include …
Amazon searchers are much less influenced by social media overall.
Americans who go to Amazon first are much more likely to be concerned about climate change and the environment.
Clearly, Amazon is eating Google’s lunch when it comes to product searches, and there is nothing on the horizon to indicate Google has a way to stem that tide. Particularly worrisome for Google has to be Amazon taking a bigger slice – potentially a much bigger slice – of the ad search revenue market.
