Sixty one per cent of UK shoppers will find gift ideas from researching Amazon's website this Christmas, with 50 per cent getting inspiration from searching on Google, according to new research by Searchmetrics. Thirty eight per cent, meanwhile, will use eBay.

The company polled 1,000 UK adults and also found that 23 per cent are turning to Facebook friends, company pages, ads and promotions for Christmas gift ideas. Nearly twice as many women (30 per cent) will use the social network to research gifts this holiday shopping season, than men (17 per cent). Pinterest will be used by seven per cent of shoppers, the same number as Twitter.

“Our research demonstrates how shopping related search is evolving and especially the intense competition between traditional search engines such as Google and retail marketplaces such as Amazon and eBay,” says Marcus Tober, CTO and founder of Searchmetrics. “Google recognises the threat to its business from the likes of Amazon, which is why it changed its Google Shopping service to compete more directly with Amazon. Retailers now pay to have their product images, prices and descriptions show up in search results pages on Google. So shoppers receive instant, comparative product information from a variety of retailers on Google ‒ which competes directly with the information available from sellers you see on Amazon.”

He adds: “One of the benefits of looking for product ideas on social networks is that you get to see feedback and preferences from other consumers, as well as participate in online discussions about products with a range of people, including your own friends and followers. And of course purchase recommendations from other shoppers – especially friends – can be very powerful,” said Tober, whose company’s Searchmetrics Suite software helps retailers and other businesses track and improve the visibility of their websites in search engines and social networks."

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