How do people research online before buying in-store?

According to the Australian Centre for Retail Studies, about 50% of people research their next purchase online before they head in-store and purchase.

What’s really surprising about the findings is that once someone has made a decision to buy, they research online very quickly before purchasing in store; most people a week before the purchase, many the day before and quite a few on the actual day of the in-store purchase!

They also noted that many people surf the net while watching TV! Talk about multi tasking…

What this means is that we see spikes in website visitation every time a TV ad is shown. Lesson? If you advertise on TV, mention your web address! Of course, the same goes for any other advertising channel you’re using, from catalogue, radio to brochures.

I guess what’s also interesting is the list of top offline stores that people visit to make their purchase after having researched online. The list includes a number of big name stores, including:

• Myer
• Kmart
• Target
• BigW
• Harvey Norman
• JB Hi-Fi
• David Jones

Really, in that list, there is only one website which allows you to purchase online (JB Hi-Fi) although Myer has dipped a toe in the water with its https://gifts.myer.com.au/ site.

Come Gerry Harvey!

Something else to note is that quite a lot of people browse in-store before going home to research online, so it can work the other way too.

With 14.4 million active Australian internet users, what can you do to get people into your store?

Luckily for most of us who don’t have well known brands, there are ways to help get people researching online (and on your website) into your physical store to complete their purchase.

The thing to note from the research was that 55% of people research ‘generically’, using non-brand keywords at search engines. In other words, people are looking online for solutions (products and services) rather than specific brands. So SEO and Google AdWords are vitally important.

You must be found at that critical time when people are researching, especially when they’re refining their search queries to product names and model numbers.

Once they get to your site, make sure your product information is clearly displayed, easy to read, and has excellent product photography. By the way, that was another finding from the research – people want better photos! It might just give you the edge over your competitors.

Make sure your store location information is clearly displayed on every page (whether you’re and e-tailer or not). Include a map, address and phone number if you’re a single store, or prominently display a ‘store finder’ link on each page if you’re a chain or franchise.

You could also offer a discount voucher incentive which can be printed out and taken in-store for redemption. And it’s also a good idea to create a ‘print’ button on your product pages so people can take that information with them to your store and give to a shop assistant for help locating the particular product they’re interested in.

The key message is to do your best being found online during the all important research phase of someone’s purchasing decision. Then make it as enticing and as easy as possible to visit your store and not your competitors!

Chris Thomas heads Reseo, a search engine optimisation company which specialises in creating and maintaining Google AdWords campaigns and Search Engine Optimisation campaigns for a range of corporate clients.

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