Online searchers ’spend more’ offline
Consumers who use the internet to research what they are going to buy before they visit a store on average spend more money, new research has found.
The study - commissioned by Yahoo! and ChannelForce - looked at US consumers making electronics purchases, finding that as well as spending ten per cent more than those who did not do online research, this group had a clearer idea of what they wanted to buy before they entered the store.
The amount of extra spending from the more informed consumers varies from $31 (£15) for digital cameras to $139 (£69) on televisions and $190 (£94) on television packages.
The online sources considered most useful for product research prior to shopping were retail websites, visited by 73 per cent of this group, and company websites and search engines, visited by 68 and 49 per cent respectively.
"This study confirms and quantifies that a more informed consumer is a more valuable consumer," said David Rubinstein, a senior director of search marketing at Yahoo!.
"Manufacturers have a huge opportunity here - even if they don’t sell products online, their online efforts are impacting what people are buying in stores," he added.
