Tendency for search in Japan
We, Japanese, have a tendency to search for internet before we buy something. We trust review how people evaluate a product. Word of Mouth on internet is quite important tool to understand the product.
As you may know, kakaku.com is one of the largest WOM websites in Japan. We check the review and price before we go to a shop. Most of e-commerce shops have a function to post reviews because we believe the review from the real customer is trustworthy word.
I thought that it’s very common all over the world, but it seems not. There are some products which people go to shops directly without checking the review on internet, buy, try it out and find out which one is the best for them. I had a project with a company who were willing to sell their products online. Surprisingly most of their potential customers don’t search the main word of the product on internet. People in the country don’t write any reviews there. Only place I can find the reviews is on Amazon.
You better to make sure your products if they are buzzed online and check the search volume for the keyword. If the search volume of your main products were less than 10,000 searches/month, you would need to consider how to sell them online. It may have some difficulty to change the tendency of the people.
There should be a way to find customer online. SEM is not only tool to pull potential customers but generate and lead the customers to your website and get them interested in your products.