October 6th, 2022, Rishad Dsouza
The smart wearables market has seen rapid growth over the last few years. To illustrate this point, YouGov Profiles reveals that just within Britain the share of consumers who say they own a smartwatch has risen by 50% in two years (from 16% to 24%).
Market experts believe that this vertical of tech products is likely to continue logging significant growth over the coming decade. Needless to say, it is important for manufacturers and marketers to identify the features that consumers look at most keenly when purchasing smart wearables. The findings from a global YouGov survey conducted in August are a good starting point in that direction.
Globally, two-thirds of consumers say they consider long battery life an important factor in smart wearables (65%), marking it out as the most significant factor. A majority of consumers in each of our 18 diverse markets indicate they emphasise battery life, with the lowest share observed in UAE (52%) and the highest in Singapore (75%).
Somewhat expectedly, fitness and health tracking features, which form the basis of various marketing campaigns on smart wearables, are the second-most selected factor of importance in wearables (44%). At least half of the consumers in Britain (50%), China (51%), India (58%) and Singapore (59%) rate this as an important feature. Two-fifths of consumers in the North American markets – US (43%), Canada (43%) and Mexico (41%) – also indicate similar attitudes.
While most European markets rate fitness tracking abilities highly, it is a factor echoed by only over a quarter of French consumers (27%). Instead, they are far likelier than their European counterparts to lay emphasis on the ability to make and receive calls from these devices (49%). This is a feature rated highly by Mexican (57%) and Spanish (50%) consumers too.
Display quality could be an important factor too, with two-fifths of global consumers indicating the same (39%). Indians (55%) and Mexicans (48%) are the most likely to rate this factor as important.
A similar proportion of global consumers place importance on the ability of smart wearables to display phone notifications (38%). The ability is rated highly in a majority of Asian markets as well as select European markets like Italy (43%), Spain (45%) and Poland (44%).
A quarter of consumers across the world also feel that music playback is an important feature (26%), something particularly valued among consumers in Mexico, India, and Indonesia.
Roughly a fifth of consumers consider style (23%) and ability to view media (21%) as important factors, while about one in seven find appeal in brand loyalty (15%).
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Methodology: YouGov RealTime Omnibus provides quick survey results from nationally representative or targeted audiences in multiple markets. The data is based on surveys of adults aged 18 and over in 18 markets with sample sizes varying between 514 and 2,004 for each market. All surveys were conducted online in August 2022. Data from each market uses a nationally representative sample apart from Mexico and India, which use urban representative samples, and Indonesia and Hong Kong, which use online representative samples. Learn more about YouGov RealTime Omnibus.