Sunnyvale, Calif. — Consumers who research products like televisions and digital cameras online spend an average of 10 percent more in-store than their non-Web searching counterparts, according to new research from Yahoo! and ChannelForce.
A survey found a vast majority of in-store shoppers research their products online beforehand and that it is helping them make key purchasing decisions.
In order to examine how consumers buy electronics offline, the companies performed in-person interviews of 1,100 people between February and March 2007 at Best Buy, Circuit City, Fry’s Electronics and Target stores. The survey sample was made up of people who shopped for products, but didn’t purchase during their store visi,t and those who purchased during the store visit.
The survey asked how much education the participants had on their desired products when they walked in the store, where and how they researched the products, and the key sources that persuaded them to make a brand decision for the purchase.
The survey found:
· the Internet is the top resource for researching digital cameras and TVs and that retail Web sites, manufacturer sites and search engines are the leading online resources;
· customers who use search engines tend to spend about 10 percent more overall;
· most researchers make key decisions about their purchases before entering a store; and
· despite brand education, many customers were still unsure about the advanced features on the products desired and that a majority didn’t know the specific model that they wanted when they entered a store.
Yahoo! and ChannelForce plan to present their full findings via a free live Webinar on June 29 at 1p.m. ET, to be led by David Rubenstein, senior director of the technology and telecommunications category for Yahoo! Search Marketing, and Kurt Higgins, president of ChannelForce.
