Consumers today are increasingly mobile and as technology advancements continue around the world, retailing will evolve to keep pace. And while online shopping has shown impressive growth momentum over the past few years in industries such as travel, publishing, electronics and even clothing, the pace of change has been much slower for consumer-packaged goods.

Nearly six in 10 (59%) global consumers look for sales to save on household expenses—the leading saving strategy of eight measured across all regions and most prevalent in North America (73%) and Europe (60%), according to Nielsen’s 2011 Global Online Survey of more than 25,000 Internet respondents across 51 countries. Using coupons was the second most popular saving strategy, used by nearly half (48%) of global online consumers.

Nielsen went “under the hood” in China, the world’s leading automotive market, to survey and to better understand what Chinese consumers want when shopping for a new car.

Global concern about climate change has taken a back-seat to other environmental issues such as air and water pollution, water shortages, packaging waste and use of pesticides, according to a new Nielsen report.

As inflationary concerns continue to mount across Asia Pacific, more shoppers are turning to promotional offers for some respite from the rising prices of fast-moving consumer goods (FMCGs), according to a Nielsen study on shopper trends. Shoppers in Vietnam and Malaysia were particularly motivated by promotions, followed by shoppers in China.

The Chinese automotive market is on a roll: over the past five years, it has been the only car market globally to grow more than 20 percent, and in 2010 it posted an even-higher 30 percent growth. According to a new Nielsen study, nearly 94 percent of Chinese consumers say that they intend to buy a car at some point in the future.

According to the latest Chinese New Year (CNY) Gala Show cross-platform study, while TV still played a major role in this special occasion, consumers used other media platforms much more than during the last Chinese New Year’s Gala show.

Hong Kong’s Individual Travel Scheme launched in 2003 has resulted in an influx of millions of mainland tourists to Hong Kong, where visitors from Mainland China have now become one of the biggest consumer segments. The growth of mainland tourists in 2010 has grown 26.3 percent compared to 2009 and has contributed to Hong Kong’s economic boom in recent years. In 2010, the number of mainland tourists arriving into Hong Kong reached 22.7 million, accounting for 60 percent of all tourists – triple Hong Kong’s population. Mainland tourists are spending …

Latin America was the most confident region according to Nielsen’s latest Consumer Confidence index. Take a closer look at additional regional insights from more than a dozen countries.

Consumer confidence in the Asia Pacific region gained six points year-on-year in the fourth quarter of 2010 to an index level of 97, according to the latest edition of The Nielsen Company’s Global Consumer Confidence Index.