Research conducted in early 2016 has confirmed what many may have intuitively suspected ‒ that people don’t always buy from the websites they get their information from, and that the word-of-mouth nature of social networks makes them an important part of decision-making when we shop.

With 79% of Brits rarely or never clicking online ads, brands are wasting huge sums of money on ineffective advertising. So how can companies entice consumers to voluntarily eyeball their content? Canvas8 sat down with 15 British men and women to find out what they think about online ads.

The internet has transformed how people buy everything from their food to their footwear, and it’s no different in India, where unprecedented growth means it’s predicted that 40 million people will be shopping online by 2016. But what is it that’s driving online shopping in India?

As professional critics lament their ebbing influence on consumers who increasingly rely on the opinions of online peers, the question is being raised of whether top-down reviewers matter anymore. Are crowdsourced reviews – a sort of ‘online word of mouth’ – the only currency that counts?