A new research from Google had found out that Australia has more smartphone users than the United States and Britain. This finding gave the impression that Aussies are far more tech-savvy than industry experts have expected.

Key findings of the study are as follows:

  • Out of 1,000 adult Australians, 65 per cent own a smartphone. This is nine per cent ahead than users from the United States, Britain, France and Germany.
  • About 68 per cent of Australians use their smartphones to research a product or service. Two-thirds of this made an actual purchase using their devices, 41 per cent used their desktop and 39 per cent come to the person for purchase after searching through their devices
  • One in three Australians admitted they can give up their televisions for their smartphones. The truth of the matter is that half of the smartphone users still use their phones while watching television and 40 per cent of users still use smartphones while using their desktops.
  • Australians also use their smartphones when searching for leisure places. Fifty-one per cent used them in searching for restaurants, bars or pubs and 47 per cent used their phones when searching for travel destinations, flights and any travel related deals.
  • One in four Australians search for local information on a daily basis.

With these findings, Google advised companies to focus on omni-channel retailing or advertisements which transcend to all forms of channels whether online and offline and that companies should be buying local keywords by now.

In a report from Smart Company, Jim Stewart, chief executive of StewArt Media said, "If you are doing e-commerce, you need to have a design where someone is able to buy something from you. You can't do that unless people know what they're clicking on."

Mr Stewart also advised companies to design their Web sites to fit mobile screens but that they should be fast. "Google made an update about six weeks ago, and it is rewarding sites for mobile searches that are faster. "

David Gordon, partner at Advantage Advisors said, "These strategies (mobile advertisements) need to be a combination of online selling and online information. The risk is that by giving too much information you can then send the customer to another store. Retailers need to understand this relationship more and they need to understand what the buying dynamics of a product are."

Jason Pellegrino, head of mobile sales at Google, said in the statement, "We used to tell marketers to go mobile, but it's clear that's no longer enough. Aussies are master multi-taskers, and businesses need to start creating campaigns that work across all screens: desktop, tablet, mobile and TV. You're going to want faster response time for your mobile sites."