Offline Sales Running on Empty

Posted on | July 29, 2008 |

It looks like high gas prices pushing consumers to shop online more (and take advantage of free shipping deals – some savvy consumers there). JCPenny and Gap both reported dips in sales at their bricks and mortar operations in Q1, but they also reported even more substantial increases in online sales. Good news!

In addition to actually purchasing more online, even consumers who go to physical stores to buy their goods are doing more online comparison-shopping first. A recent survey by eMarketer found that eight out of 10 respondents who bought electronics at a bricks and mortar store went to the store’s Website first.

Two more notable takeaways: 58% of respondents said they would prefer to research products on the Internet rather than, say, through peer groups, and more than half said the retailer Website where they spent the most time was the retailer where they ended up making a purchase.

These findings are consistent with what seem like intuitive strategies for building an online brand: establish trust from your users or readers, and create a pleasant, interesting online experience.

For editorial sites like ours, it would be interesting to find out whether those consumers who research online instead of asking peers prefer expert reviews or cold, hard product specs. My suspicion is that the women we aim to capture in our demographic want to hear whether that moisturizer makes skin soft or slimy – a concept that holds for beauty products more than for the electronics this survey focused on. If you know your stuff, purchasing a stereo is about facts and figures. Not so with a hair texturizer.

Creating a place where it’s easy and fun for (potential) consumers to spend time comparison shopping, reading reviews, and hopefully putting in their own two cents is what good interactive editorial should be all about – and from the looks of this study, if you can get those consumers to spend enough time on your site and less time driving to the mall, those elusive click-through statistics might just start creeping way up.

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