Stores Magazine - October 2007 - (Page F11) OVER THE LAST 90 DAYS, WHICH TYPES OF PRODUCTS DID YOU RESEARCH ONLINE BEFORE BUYING THEM IN PERSON? Electronics Apparel Appliances Home Improvement Items Shoes Medicines/Vitamins/Supplements Car/Truck Beauty Care/Cosmetics Home Decor Furniture Sporting Goods 40.4% 21.9 21.6 19.4 16.0 15.7 14.8 12.3 11.5 10.7 10.4 10.2 9.2 8.7 4.6 40 WomanWithin.com privacy of their own homes, however, they can be perfectly honest about what they need and want. The self-consciousness factor is probably a help to a retailer like Victoria’s Secret, too: there are plenty of women (and men) who are willing to buy lingerie – they just don’t want to waltz up to the counter with it in their hands. As part of the survey, shoppers were asked how often they research products online before buying them in a store: 43.3 percent answered “regularly” and 47.3 percent answered “occasionally.” This would indicate that the vast majority of consumers do at least some online research before going to the store to complete a purchase. The numbers were highest for 25- to 34-year-olds (50.8 percent regularly, 42.2 percent occasionally), but even 27 percent of the 65-and-over age group regularly undertake online research. HOW OFTEN DO YOU RESEARCH PRODUCTS ONLINE BEFORE PURCHASING THEM IN PERSON OR IN A STORE? ADULTS 18+ MEN WOMEN Regularly Occasionally Never 43.3% 47.3 9.4 50.5% 41.5 8.1 30.6% 52.7 10.7 Tires, Batteries, Auto Parts Jewelry/Watches Food/Groceries House/Land Where do they start their searches? Often, the hunt begins somewhere they believe provides objective information or a variety of different sources of information. WHEN RESEARCHING PRODUCTS ONLINE, WHICH WEBSITE DO YOU GO TO FIRST? Google.com Amazon.com Yahoo.com eBay.com ConsumerReports.org WalMart.com MSN.com Manufacturer’s Website Ask.com AOL.com 26.0% 6.8 5.8 3.0 2.2 1.8 1.6 1.3 1.1 1.0 When asked what types of products they research online before buying in person, more than 15 percent of respondents mentioned electronics, apparel, appliances, home improvement items, shoes and medicines/vitamins/supplements. WWW.STORES.ORG These results tell us a couple of things. First of all, despite the impression you might get from a quick glance at the Favorite 50 list, the people responding to this survey clearly understand the difference between a search engine and an online retailer. But the results also reveal what they do continued on page F14 STORES / OCTOBER 2007 F11 http://WomanWithin.com http://Google.com http://Amazon.com http://Yahoo.com http://eBay.com http://ConsumerReports.org http://WalMart.com http://MSN.com http://Ask.com http://AOL.com F14 http://WWW.STORES.ORG
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