60% of Israeli surfers aged 18+ seek financial information online, according to the TNS/Teleseker survey. The survey included 1,700 persons from a surfer panel, constituting a representative sample of adult surfers.
The survey found that 54% of surfers who sought financial information made an online purchase of a financial product or good. 44% of respondents said that they made a purchase offline. The main reasons for not making an online purchase were the lack of assistance from an authorized person before making a decision, and feeling more comfortable making a transaction following a personal one-on-one interaction. Another major reason was concern about the security of personal data.
The most frequent financial information sought for and purchased online were banking services, cited by 80% of respondents. In second place was credit card information, cited by 46% of respondents, followed by insurance - 34%, and investments - 28%. 27% of respondents cited financial portals and websites.
53% of respondents said that they used the Internet to seek additional information about goods and services they had already heard about from other sources, such as friends or advertisements. Google Israel marketing manager Riki Drori said that this figure shows how the Internet strengthens interest and demand created by offline information and advertising to which consumers are exposed.
Although the Internet is the most preferred source for obtaining information or making a purchase, 34% of seekers of online financial information still want to obtain information or make a purchase at their bank branch, and 31% do so via private banker.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on September 3, 2007
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