Consumers Who Search Online for Electronics Spend More in Stores

Consumers who search online for televisions and digital cameras on average choose to spend 10 percent more when making their purchase in-store, compared with those who did not use a search engine, according to new research from Yahoo and ChannelForce, MarketingCharts reports.

The survey examined how consumers buy electronics offline and found that a vast majority research products online prior to making in-store purchases.

Key findings from the study:

• The internet is the top resource for researching digital cameras and televisions:
  • 75 percent who researched their purchases before visiting a retail location used the internet as their primary source of information.
  • The leading online resources were retail websites (73 percent), manufacturer websites (68 percent) and search engines (49 percent).
• Consumers who use search engines to research online spend more:
  • This group is a valuable target for marketers because these consumers are highly engaged, using twice as many sources as non-searchers - and they end up spending about 10 percent more.
  • Those who search spend an average of $31 more on digital cameras and $46 more on digital camera packages.
  • On average, they spend $139 more on TVs and $190 on TV packages.
• The vast majority of those who research have already made key decisions about their purchases before they arrive at the store:
  • Some 80 percent of consumers who research before making a purchase say they ended up buying a brand from their original consideration set.
  • The remaining 20 percent say the in-store sales person was highly influential in their decision.
• Despite the education on brands, consumers are often unsure about the advanced features of the product: About 75 percent of people did not know the model they wanted when they walked into a retail store.

“This study confirms and quantifies that a more informed consumer is a more valuable consumer,” said David Rubinstein, senior director, technology and telecommunications category, Yahoo Search Marketing. “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.”