Mumbai: HDFC Bank tops internet searches for lenders, while ICICI Direct is the most popular query for online broking sites according to analytics of search done by Google. Life Insurance Corporation, which is the largest life company is also the most popular in the online space. The second most searched entities under the same category are State Bank of India, ICICI Prudential and Sharekhan while the third-most charged company in the financial sector are ICICI Bank, Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance and HDFC Securities.
A research report by Google has come to the conclusion that online searches help overcome brand loyalty by helping consumers compare brands they patron with others. The report is based on a survey which reveals that consumer of financial services change their mind seven times out of ten after doing online research.”Ten years back the customer had more time and fewer products to choose from. Today there are several products and the customer has lesser time. Our research has shown that – Internet plays an important role at various stages of the buying process with over 42% users saying they became aware of new products and brands, 58% said that Internet helped in their initial research and over 62% used Internet for intense research before deciding on their final purchase. While the final purchase of the product or service is still done offline – Internet research influenced 2 out of 3 applications with 24% users buying/applying online, 70% applying offline and 38% buying offline influenced by online.
According to Vikas Agnihotri, director, banking and financial services & travel at Google, over 99 mn urban Indian users are now active on the internet and online medium is the most preferred source of information for Internet users with over 2/3rd of all Internet users using online sources when researching for financial products. “”During the online research phase, over 66% of the Internet users who were in the market to buy financial products changed their mind about the product and brand. The influence of the internet research was the highest for Loans (75% home loans, 73% personal loans) followed by Insurance (motor insurance 70%, health insurance 70% and life insurance 69%),”” he said
