Research on the Internet, Buy in the Local Store

in On Local Business Marketing

This news from Internet Retailer about customers (like me) who prefer to research retail products online and buy them offline:

The practice of researching purchases online, then buying at a bricks-and-mortar store continues to gain momentum, according to a study commissioned by shopLocal.com, a provider of local search options for retailers. Among shoppers who hit the Internet before hitting the stores, 70% say they did it more in the fourth quarter of 2004 than during the comparable period the year before, the study says.
In a shopLocal.com report, shoppers who go to the web and then to the store are referred to as web-to-store or W2S shoppers. Among those consumers, 48% say they plan to do more web-to-store shopping this year than last. 34% of them expect to increase their online shopping, the report says.

Once or twice a week I find myself parking outside of a Starbucks (or other Wi-Fi hotspot) to check on a purchase before walking in a store to buy it.

My dream?

Borders gives me access to online reviews from Amazon while sitting in their store … on their own systems. Right now I have to walk out to the car, grab the laptop, head back into the store (which is T-Mobile’ed), check my reviews, and then buy.

Oh, what a world it would be………….

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  • Anonymous

    Was with my 7 year old at Toys R Us last weekend to pick up a new video game.  He was wishing he had a computer so he could read reviews of the 2 games he was deciding between!

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