Viewability, retail footfall, voice assistants: Five killer stats to start your week

1. UK ad viewability  exceeds 70% for the first time

Desktop display ad viewability in the UK reached 70.9% during the first half of the year, an increase of 7.5 percentage points year on year and the first time viewability has exceeded 70%.

Canada edged ahead of the UK to take top place at 73.6%, with Germany coming in third at 69.4%. Globally, ad viewability surpassed 60% across all formats and environments.

Brand risk has continued to decrease in terms of desktop display, with a 1.7 percentage point drop from 4.5% in the first half of last year to 2.8% during the first six months of this year.

Source: Integral Ad Science

2. Almost three-quarters of UK consumers are willing to use food refill services

Some 71.3% of UK consumers say they’re willing to use food refill services at supermarkets as the packaging-free movement gains momentum.

Some 44.1% of 16- to 24-year olds who purchased food and grocery products in July have used a refill station in the last 12 months, compared to 35% of 25- to 34-year olds and just 25.4% of 35- to 44-year olds.

Consumers who won’t use refill services say the main reason they are reluctant is because they don’t want to take containers to a store (31.5%). Another 19.2% believe it is more expensive to buy zero-packaging goods and 17.6% aren’t bothered about reducing the amount of plastic packaging they use.

Source: GlobalData

3. Use of voice assistants surges

40% of people who use voice assistants only started doing so in the last year.

And, in the last two years, there’s been an increase in the number of reasons consumers are using the devices. Buying products like groceries or home care is up from 35% two years ago to 53% this year; customer service interactions post purchase is up from 37% in 2017 to 52% this year; and making payments for products or services increased from 28% to 48%.

Consumer satisfaction is gaining momentum too. Almost three-quarters (72%) of consumers say they are satisfied when using a voice-based personal assistant like Google Assistant or Siri on their smartphones, which is up from 61% in 2017.

Source: Capgemini Research 

4. Footfall stumbles into late summer

Retail footfall declined in August, down 1.3% year on year and compared with a 1.6% decline for the same period last year. On a three-month basis, footfall decreased by 2.1%.

In August, high street footfall declined by 1.9% and shopping centre footfall was down 2.2%.

Retail park footfall, however, increased by 1%.

Source: British Retail Consortium

5. New car market remained steady in August

The UK new car market remained steady in August with just 1,521 fewer cars registered compared to the same month last year.

Registrations fell by 1.6% in what is typically one of the slowest sales months of the year, as falling demand for diesel and plug-in hybrid vehicles continued to impact the overall market.

Registrations from both the private and fleet sectors declined in the month, down 1.7% and 3.5% respectively.

Meanwhile, diesel registrations fell for the 29th consecutive month, down 12.2%, while petrol demand remained stable, up 1.0%. Zero emission cars saw the biggest percentage growth, up 377.5% while 4,014 hybrid electric cars also joined UK roads, an uplift of 36.2%.

Source: SMMT