Study Finds Most Valuable Consumers Embracing Multiple Online Channels

Source: http://www.centernetworks.com/social-shopping-survey-results

JupiterResearch and LinkShare have provided the results today of an Internet shopping survey completed in December 2007. They note that, "US online retailers are better positioned to compete when they view the online world not as separate channels, but as an ecosystem that requires a diversity of marketing approaches and an embrace of new and ever-changing methods to engage increasingly sophisticated online shoppers."

The survey results are below and what it shows are a few things in my opinion -- people normally don't just head to a site and purchase an item. They do research on multiple sites (my guess includes heavy blog reviews) and they reach out to their online social friends for help with purchases. We've known this for years, but with the social networks getting such heavy play and moving from just the immediate friends, to friends and followers this social purchase help grows as well. This is where Beacon could have played a role had it been done right.

The survey results/findings are:

• 95% of higher spenders -- those spending an average of $2,203 online in  the last 12 months -- look to multiple sites when researching a product purchase; 20% don't trust just a single site.
• 87% of all online buyers in the US visited multiple websites before making their most recent purchase online. 
• Social and community sites impact the purchase decisions of 51% of online shoppers aged 18-24. This is far beyond any other age group, which averaged less than 26%.
• More than a third (36%) of online shoppers affected by social/community sites said they buy offline even though they use online social/community sites to make their decisions.
• 42% of online shoppers said consumer product reviews would make social/community sites more useful when researching and buying online; 24% of online shoppers said top 10 product lists would make       social/community sites more useful when researching and buying online.
• 77% of online buyers who used store websites when researching their most recent online purchase found them useful.  75% of online buyers who used search engines when researching their most recent online
  purchase found them useful.  Yet online shoppers continue to seek out additional product insight, commentary, and promotions elsewhere.