A week or so ago Compete released some data showing how consumers use multiple sources of information prior to making a purchase and how those sources may differ by category. One interesting stat from the survey data that jumped out at me was the following:
[O]nly 6% of consumers surveyed as part of the Online Shopper Intelligence study indicated that they conducted no research prior to their last online purchase.
In other words, 94% did online research before making an online purchase.
While the context here is online purchase behavior, we can reasonably assume that this behavior is equally applicable to the far more common practice of buying offline. Most purchase behavior occurs offline (e-commerce is less than 4% of US retail) and these online buyers are not going to behave differently when they buy in physical stores.
Prior studies by comScore, BIGResearch, Yahoo! and others have found 80% to more than 90% of consumers buying in-store have consulted the Internet for information prior to purchase: ROBO.
Here’s another interesting piece of data from the Compete survey, showing the continuing popularity of coupon sites.
Source: Compete, Inc. 2/10.
March 2nd, 2010 at 11:44 pm
[...] Compete: 94% Do Online Research Pre-Purchase « Screenwerk [...]
March 3rd, 2010 at 11:48 pm
[...] Even if you’re brick and mortar, you still gotta be online This comes by way of Greg Sterling over at Screenwerk. According to a recent poll, 94 percent of consumers did some research online prior to making a purchase. While e-commerce only makes up four percent of U.S. retail sales, people overwhelmingly (61 percent) use Internet search to research a purchase. [...]
March 3rd, 2010 at 11:50 pm
[...] Even if you’re brick and mortar, you still gotta be online This comes by way of Greg Sterling over at Screenwerk. According to a recent poll, 94 percent of consumers did some research online prior to making a purchase. While e-commerce only makes up four percent of U.S. retail sales, people overwhelmingly (61 percent) use Internet search to research a purchase. [...]
March 8th, 2010 at 9:35 pm
[...] off as well. The online –>offline number should be larger. Recall that Compete/TNS conducted a survey in which it found that 94% did research online prior to (online) purchase. Prior studies by [...]
March 16th, 2010 at 7:00 pm
[...] Even if you’re brick and mortar, you still gotta be online This comes by way of Greg Sterling over at Screenwerk. According to a recent poll, 94 percent of consumers did some research online prior to making a purchase. While e-commerce only makes up four percent of U.S. retail sales, people overwhelmingly (61 percent) use Internet search to research a purchase. [...]
April 25th, 2010 at 3:10 pm
[...] préalables. Autrement dit, 94% font des recherches en ligne avant d’acheter. Un article de Gesterling pousse cette logique sur le « off », en s’appuyant sur d’autres [...]