An insight into how consumers use technology and its impact on our lives.

1. The Evolution of Internet
An insight into how consumers use technology and
its impact on our lives.

2. A summary of the Internet
and its role in Digital Marketing
The internet has proved an essential
asset to digital marketing in various
markets. Over the last four decades, the
internet has developed into the prime
source for product marketing and
yielded billions in revenue for multiple
companies. The internet has evolved
from a number of other technological
developments. From the radio to the
much loved television, the internet has
become an incomparable commodity to
modern civilisation. It has enabled
unparalleled opportunities for digital
marketing to optimise business
`production and promotion of their
products’. From the internet being a form
of teletext with basic information in the
1990s to the modern internet where
everything and everyone is readily
accessible.

3. 1965
First WAN (Wide Area
Network) connection
established.
1973
Khan and Cerf develop a
protocol for linking multiple
networks together, also later
known as IP address.
1990
HTML and URL developed
Berners-Lee et al resulting
in the World Wide Web
(WWW) being developed.
2000
Approximately 300
million people using
the internet.
2007
Iphone is released
giving way for
consumers to use the
internet on their own
personal device.
In 2019, there were
approximately 4
billion people using
the internet.

4. Access to the Internet

5. In the modern era, consumers literally
have the internet in their hands. From
laptops to smartphones to tablets, the
internet is portable and readily accessible
to the public at any given time. This is
conveyed by consumers using mobile
devices 70% of the time to access retail
websites. (Statistica, 2021).
Patel (2021) described this phenomenon
as the “internet of things or IoT”. The
internet not only allows consumers to
readily access various products and
information but also enables businesses
to gather key data on their target
audiences in order to optimise the
promotion of their product.
(Patel, 2021).
How do consumers access the internet?

6. This graph represents how three different
types of devices, mobiles, laptops and other
connected devices, are used on a daily basis
to access digital media. From 2008 to 2018,
the average amount of time a day spent on a
mobile device accessing digital media
increased from 2 to 6 hours. In comparison, a
more consistent pattern is evident with the
use of laptops to access digital media with the
total number of hours per day varying between
2-3 hours over a 10 year period.
(Meeker, 2019).
An evident increase in the use of personal
devices to access digital media indicates a
growth or potential to optimise the use of
various platforms to digitally market a product
to a desired demographic.
How the accessibility of the internet has increased on a range of personal
devices in the last decade.

7. Digital devices used to
access the internet

8. tablet
laptop
smart
watch
smartphone
desktop
computer

9. Artificial intelligence devices used to
access the internet:
Alexa by Amazon
The Metaverse
Siri by Apple Inc.

10. In the modern era, consumers literally have the
internet in their hands. From laptops to
smartphones, the internet is portable and readily
accessible to the public at any given time.
Patel (2021) described this phenomenon as the
“internet of things or IoT”. The internet not only
allows consumers to readily access information but
also enables businesses to to gather key data on
their target audiences in order to optimise the
promotion of their product. Marketers predict that
IoT will “revolutionaise marketing within a year with
estimations including the IoT market growing to
£5.2 trillion by 2020 and the total number of
connected devices will increased to 13 billion by
2020. (Patel, 2021).
How has the use of different devices has evolved
digital marketing over the last few decades?

11. How do consumers use the
internet for more specific
searching?

12. Internet users access the web in order to
use search engines 91% of the time as
of 2012 and has remained a majority
purpose of the internet since 2002.
(Percell, Brenner and Rainie, 2012).
This graph further indicates that such
percentile analysis of USA consumer’s
use of search engines can be considered
relative to elements such as ‘buy a
product online’, ‘get news online’ etc. as
all internet users will use search engines
to search for a product to buy or for
specific news articles.
Search engines have been utilised by
consumers and businesses alike to
optimise the consumption of products
and information in a variety of markets
and subjects.

13. How has marketing transformed into Digital
Marketing as a result of of consumers accessing
more specific search platforms?
As the internet has developed over the last four decades, so to
has the ability for consumers to access a wider range of search
domains to facilitate their needs and wants. According to Pew
Research (2017T), “constant” internet usage among adults
increased by 5% in the last three years alone.
In essence, marketing can be defined as the ability to connect
with the desired audience in the right place at the right time. The
internet has optimised an individual’s ability to search, learn, buy
and sell information and products. Marketing has evolved into
Digital Marketing where brands, products and services can be
promoted through a range of technology.
Search engines have become an integral part to the internet and
how organisations optimise their brand to the desired
demographic traffic. (Garg, 2017).

14. How do customers search
for information?

15. Having identified search
engines as a primary
source for consumers to
search for information; the
following venn diagrams
convey how Google has
remained the most
popular search engine
since 2004, with its use
almost doubling in 8
years. (Miller, 2012).
A major influence of this
growth is due to Google’s
use of contextual signals
to offer up more relevant
results.

16. Social Media Optimisation (SMO) is a progressive term for
“the process of increasing the popularity and awareness of the
product in the minds of the people” (Sahai et al, 2017).
With consumers using their digital devices to search for
information through an interactive medium, it is even more
important to optimise an organisation’s product on social
media. An internal research study by Facebook found that a
series of “photo-only ads can drive unique traffic than any other
ad formats”, (Newberry and McLachlan, 2020).
Consumers use various platforms to search for
information and recommendations. One of the most prominent
platforms is social media. With the evolution of digital
marketing, marketing styles have also progressed with
convenience being at
the heart of any
advertisements on
this platform.
(Sahai et al, 2017).

17. This bar graph
indicates how
facebook’s
demographic
categories engage
with advertising on
their platform.
Facebook’s most significant “global
advertising audience” are people aged
25-34 years old and a majority of
Facebook’s advertising audience
ranging between 18 - 34 years old.

18. What do consumers buy
online?

19. The internet has allowed businesses to connect with
consumers in an entirely new way. Over physical
stores, social and search-engine platforms, as well as
other websites and are the favoured choice for how
consumers browse and research before purchasing.
This particular phenomenon can be defined as
e-commerce.
The growth of e-commerce changed how
organisations sell to their customers and sequentially
how consumers purchase goods and services.
Customers now have complete autonomy in how they
consume the products they want (Chaffey & Ellis-
Chadwick, 2016).
The demand for top-quality service, convenience as
well as competitive choices and prices has developed
in conjunction with the internet and the platforms that
have emerged from that expansion.

20. The digital revolution has altered the
equilibrium in the consumer-brand
relationship resulting in ‘the path to
purchase’ also changing. (book ref
needed here). Due to the consumer
having more autonomy in their ‘path to
purchase’, has also changed their
behaviour in relation to their ‘purchasing
mindset’.
A consumer pulse survey completed by
McKinsey & Co. showed the “strongest
drivers of new brand purchases”.
(Charm et al, 2020).
These drivers influence what consumers
buy online; ‘products are in stock’ and
availability of the product demonstrate that convenience and availability are the prime drivers of consumers’
‘purchasing mindsets’. Other drivers relating to health/hygiene and quality of the product are also key due to the
digital revolution resulting in information being readily available to the consumer. With such information and
temperamentality of the consumer ever weining, it is key that organisations consider these drivers when
advertising their product to their target audience.

21. Consumer demand for product availability,
convenience and competitive prices are factors
that online retailers are having to consider when
promoting their product.
Some of the most popular items/ sectors
consumers are buying from online are:
- Electronics
- Music video
- Clothing
- Furniture
The most popular consumer sectors remain
consistent with previous demands with clothing
and furniture. However there is an evident trend of
consumer purchasing and demand becoming
more digital.
With Music videos and electronics accounting for
around 74% of consumer consumption, what
product organisations offer as well as how they
offer it is becoming a unified phenomenon.

22. Online video consumption

23. How are videos consumed?
Youtube has become the most successful internet site for short
video consumption. With an estimated 5 billion Youtube videos
watched everyday and video content totalling 300 hours, Youtube
is the most prominent video platform.
Prior to the internet, the main channel for video content was TV.
However, this is “currently eroding as viewers are increasingly
turning to video-sharing services” (Griborn and Nylen, 2017); such
as Youtube. With consumers turning to video content, as well as
the influencers on them, for recommendations and
reviews. Youtube has enabled ‘influencer marketing’
to become a driving influence with consumers readily
seeking recommendations to inform their purchase
decision; 68% of shoppers used the platform to make
such decisions (Revlocal, 2022.).
According to HubSpot’s most recent marketing report,
“nearly half of all marketers will add Youtube to their
Marketing strategy” over the next year .
(Grendzynski, 2020).

24. How has the
amount of
video content
consumption
changed?
The shift to online video
consumption has been
largely due to Generation Z
using digital devices to
access information about
products and to
make purchases.
For Generation Z, Youtube is the
go-to site for video content.

25. Consumer Trends

26. The digital revolution has brought with it the sender-
receiver relationship. Humans send out a request for
information or a search and receive the information
back from the platform. The digital market offered by
internet evolution has only expanded in the last two
decades. However, over the last 5 years, digital
marketing opportunities have become more prominent
than ever with digital content being viewed every
moment of every day on a range of devices.
‘Knowing your audience’ is a key concept for any
organisation to successfully increase the demand for
their product. For this generation, customer service,
convenience and “leaning” on others for an informed
decision; otherwise known as online influencers.
Consumers use online ‘influencers’ to inform their
purchasing decision with “70% of teens trusting
influencers over traditional celebrities” and “influencer
marketing campaigns earning $5.78 for every dollar
spent”.
(Digital Marketing Institute, 2021).

27. Recent consumer trend
- the metaverse
A poignant factor to consider when analysing consumer trends of
the e-commerce in 2022 is the pandemic. The global pandemic
resulted in more consumers using digital means to purchase goods
on the internet. However, with this development in virtual sales and
marketing of goods comes the consumer challenge of the
elimination of physical touch. The digital market does not allow for
a physical experience per se, rather it allows alternative means to
influence and guide the customer to a specific product relative to
their online search (Dynata, 2022).
The evolution of the internet has taken a step further in recent years
with the notion of the “metaverse” emerging from Mark Zuckerberg
in 2020. The metaverse will be an “embodied internet” where users
can use their personalised avatars to shop within the Metaverses’
own digital economy (Newton, 2021). It is the case that consumers
believe that the metaverse has the most potential to transform how
they experience culture, entertainment and travel- essential all
common consumer trends in one experience, in one place.

28. In recent years, consumers have used technology to purchase goods.
The artificial intelligence (AI) technology to facilitate such demand has
evolved at an unprecedented rate; especially in the virtual technology
used to facilitate said purchasing on smart devices. Since 2017,
Amazon members have increased by 49% since 2017 to 148.6 million
users. Being an Amazon Prime user comes with the benefit of using
their Alexa AI software. It is the case that voice activated artificial
intelligence (AI) software enables you to browse, shop and research
information on the internet without the need of a physical device in
hand (Dean, 2022).
With such advanced technology allowing the average consumer to
purchase goods on the digital market faster increases user satisfaction
and enables e-commerce trends to boom in relative popular e-markets
accessed using the voice assisted technology.
Amazon’s Alex AI technology demonstrates how consumer trends
have only increased due to relative demand and convenience of
accessibility. However, this particular method targets ‘Amazon
choice’products thereby creating added pressure to organisations to
establish an AI link to sell to their desired demographics on the digital
market.

29. Summary

30. The evolution of the internet has shifted the equilibrium between
brands and consumers; primarily with how consumers gain
information and are influenced regarding a brand and/or product.
The internet enables individuals to actively consider and be
informed about the good or service they are purchasing; the digital
consumer actively searches for information regarding the product
as opposed to the brands ‘pushing’ that information.
(DeLoitte, 2017).
The development of the “Internet of Things” (IoT) has resulted in
every aspect of a consumer’s life being connected, with the three
main data categories being transactional, lifestyle and behavioural.
The IoT encapsulates the internet revolution perfectly. The
combination of humans, with the needs and wants of consumption,
things, objects that are available to consumers and the internet,
offering platforms for humans to purchase things, allows for fast,
convenient and high demand purchasing on the digital market
(Khanna and Kaur, 2019).
In conjunction, the “tri-sectional relationship” of IoT has altered the
business-consumer relationship, primarily due to the internet. Prior
to the internet, humans physically went out to physically purchase
physical items with physical money. On the IoT, consumers can
purchase products online on digital platforms using digital money
after making an informed decision from digital influencers.

31. The Internet of Things (IoT) is an incredible phenomenon that has
ever-evolving digital world. However, the development of the digital devices
in which we access the IoT has also enabled consumer-business
interconnectivity to expand. The development of technology such as Alexa,
tablets and other portable devices has enabled the “brick-to-click”
movement, where consumers prefer online purchasing to physical stores
(Evans, 2020). In turn, this has resulted in a multifaceted challenge for
businesses in every industry. This is a challenge that these ever-developing
technologies pose to businesses. Organisations must utilise digital
marketing on various platforms and respond to the “digital disruption” of
the development of consumption being primarily digital. This is a challenge
that these ever-developing technologies pose to businesses.
The impact that innovative technology is having on any consumers’ life is
how products are being accessed. As a matter of convenience, good
customer support and high demand are the ever popular demands of
modern-day e-consumers so to is the technology that provides that
platforms and means to purchase said goods.
The future of the IoT and how it expands will occur with the ever increasing
demands and expectations of the key demographic group being targeted.
This is particularly applicable to “Gen Z” and those proven to be more
easily guided by “online influencers”, with “70% of teens trusting influencers
over traditional celebrities” (Digital Marketing Institute, 2021).

32. As the Internet of Things (IoT) continues to expand in conjunction with meeting the ever increasing needs of e-consumers so does
quality and convenience of the device or system used by the econsumer to make online purchases. According to Statista (2016),
“75.44 billion devices will be connected worldwide by 2025”. With such an increase in the number of devices owned by each
consumer and the variety of methods using for e-commerce every increasing, the creation of innovative networks such as 5G.
5G is the fifth generation of mobile network technology that provides the fastest connection to date. With the sheer number of people
that are and will be connected in the future, mobile network technology that can meet the increase demand for fast connection,
convenience and excellent overall customer service is required. The future of technology innovation in relation to the 5G network
has particularly thrived in the global virtual reality and augmented reality market (Saltis, 2021). Goldman Sachs stated that the
“global virtual reality market would be work $80 million by 2025”, With 5G aiding not only AI technology development, it is aiding the
VR content itself. The telecommunication firm NTT in Japan are successfully trialling an 8K video live stream using a 5G Nokia
device (Saltis, 2021).
The smart wearable technology market is another sector that 5G is
positively impacting upon. With the sale of smart wearables predicated
to increase to $95.3 billion in 2021, 5G opens a new avenue in this AI
market bringing with it “high speed data transfers at ultra-low
latencies” (Saltis, 2021). In layman's terms, businesses have a new
means to contact customers on their wearable smart technology such
as through personalised push notifications .
The future of the IoT, e-commerce and how consumers access the
digital market is forever evolving with the need and wants of the
consumer having to be met through innovative technology that can
support the consumers’ desires through aiding factors such as quick,
reliable network technology such as 5G.

33. References

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