Converting the Customer Before s/he Leaves Home
According to Ad Age, betting that financially strapped consumers need a harder sell, Package-goods marketers have been plowing more money into in-store marketing as the economy worsens, because they believe the “traditional wisdom” that 70% of all purchase decisions are made in store.
But not so fast: New research indicates that as the economy worsens, more consumers are making more purchase decisions at home.
By the end of last year, more than three-quarters — 76% — of consumers were making their purchase decisions at home, up from 60% in the first quarter.
The implications are complex. “More purchase decisions are being made at home,” said the senior VP-director of insights and strategy for Publicis Groupe’s Arc Worldwide, Chicago. “But purchase decisions in general are taking more of people’s time [both at home and in store].”
Arc research shows that people are shopping at more stores or online retailers to get the best deals.
The segment of consumers doing one-stop shopping, she said, is half what it was in 2007. And what influences purchase decisions at home increasingly comes online from search or retail sites, which blurs shopper and digital marketing.
For marketers everywhere the implication is clear: ignore online conversions at your own peril.
