I realized today that I am one of the very people that the search marketer in me is somewhat perplexed by. My space heater broke this morning, and given that my apartment’s built-in heater is useless and it was so cold in my bedroom that I could see my breath, I felt the need to begin researching a new purchase immediately. So, what did I do? Half-asleep and freezing, I went to Google, searched for the first store that I knew would sell them (Bed, Bath & Beyond), and clicked on their paid listing without thought. (Unusual for me – the knowledge of CPCs is so ingrained that I rarely click on paid ads without reason, even if it’s on a branded term and not one of my clients.) I searched through the products on their site, selected one that satisfied me based on its reviews and features, and made plans to purchase it at my local store (after costing them the price of a click, albeit a cheap one). I had an immediate need for the product (coldness), and before going to the store I did what came naturally to me: I researched it online.
One of the holy grails of online marketing for brick-and-mortar retailers is understanding the relationship between the online and offline activities of its consumers. Bed, Bath & Beyond will never know that my particular purchase originated with a Google search, and they aren’t alone – few, if any, companies have found an accurate and comprehensive method of measuring this kind of behavior. However, the information that is available indicates that this relationship is strong enough that it cannot be ignored.
A study released by Google and Compete via webinar in October attempted to evaluate the relationship between paid search clicks and in-store retail behavior by monitoring clicks to leading retail websites and surveying consumers who clicked about their post-search purchase behavior. Among other things this study found that, depending on the vertical, up to 43% of online shoppers purchase in-store. (This percentage was highest for mass merchants and lowest for sporting goods retailers, which is likely influenced by the availability of offline locations.) Another Google study on consumer intentions found that the Internet will play a role in 86% of holiday purchases, and 54% of consumers are likely to research a product online and then purchase it in-store this season. And yet another study, this one published by Nielsen Online, found that even with the fairly low-consideration purchase of pet food, 44% of respondents had visited a website with the intent of learning about pet food. Additionally, 64% of consumer electronics buyers who visited a local store to research their purchase also researched it on the Internet. This data combined with sheer logic indicates that a significant portion of consumers are doing exactly what I did: searching online and buying in-store.
A good online marketer will not be frustrated by this subset of consumers, but will aim to understand them and use this knowledge to their advantage. Regardless of whether a customer goes straight to your store or costs you a click first, they are still a customer. Eliminating as many barriers to purchase as possible will result in success in both e-commerce and brick-and-mortar. Borders is one company that does this well – if a customer wants a particular book today, they can search for it on Borders.com, read the description to make sure it’s what they want, and then see which local stores currently have it in stock. It’s quick, easy, and saves them an empty-handed trip to the store – thus utilizing their website to increase the overall probability of purchase.
Given the state of the economy, it’s more important than ever that retailers focus on understanding and leveraging the online and offline behaviors of their customers. What are some other ways this can be done?
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