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Web News Digest for Marketers. |
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Shoppers Check It Out Online, Then Go To The Store According to BIGresearch's June Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey, when asked how often they research products online before buying them in person or in a store, 87% of nearly 7,500 respondents said they did so occasionally to regularly. Of those who said they researched products online before buying them in the store:
The survey also divided these respondents into two income brackets to profile which items were most frequently researched online, but purchased in person, by those making above and below $50K per year.( Joe Pilotta, VP of Research for BIGresearch, said "Those in the higher income bracket researched and then bought electronics most often, followed by home improvement items and appliances. The other group reported electronics, apparel and medicines/vitamins/supplements as their top three products researched online, then purchased in person."((
In both income groups, the top search engine used for product research was Google.com by a large margin, but WalMart.com made a surprising appearance in the top 5 websites used first among those who did their comparative shopping online before buying in the store.
Pilota concludes, "... Retailers cannot view online as ancillary to the store, rather retailer websites must be viewed as extensions of the bricks and mortar as well as a concentrated shopping experience."
Ad ratios and budgets grow
Focus on Market Research Reports July 14, 2006
Why research is so important
July 12, 2006 Some 79 percent of small businesses conduct business-related online shopping regularly, making it almost as prevalent as the use of email among online small businesses, according to a new research report from Jupiter Research, "Small-Business Online Shopping: Understanding Online Research and Purchase Behavior." Travel leads the small-business shopping categories with 71 percent penetration, followed by computer hardware and software and office supplies. To read the rest click here. |
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Youniversal Branding July 11, 2006
From www.trendwatching.com
At the core of all consumer trends is the new consumer, who creates his or her own playground, own comfort zone, own universe. It's the 'empowered' and 'better informed' and 'switched on' consumer combined into something profound, something we've dubbed MASTER OF THE YOUNIVERSE. At the core is control: psychologists don't agree on much, except for the belief that human beings want to be in charge of their own destiny. Or at least have the illusion of being in charge.
High Speed Internet in 60% of Online Households
Monday, July 10, 2006
According to new consumer research from Leichtman Research Group (LRG), 69% of all US households now subscribe to an online service at home, and high-speed Internet services now account for about 60% of all online subscribers.
Overall, cable remains the most common source for residential broadband driven by its strength among higher income households. But DSL now has a greater market share than cable among middle income households. Based on a telephone survey of 1,600 randomly selected U.S. households:
- Thirty-seven percent of all households with annual household incomes over $75,000 subscribe to cable broadband and 27% subscribe to DSL
- Among all households earning $30,000-$75,000 per year, 21% subscribe to DSL and 18% to cable
For the rest of this report or to sign up to receive it daily please visit here,
Half of all malfunctioning products returned to stores by consumers are in full working order, but customers can't figure out how to operate the devices a scientist said on Monday.
Product complaints and returns are often caused by poor design, but companies frequently dismiss them as "nuisance calls," Elke den Ouden found in her thesis at the Technical University of Eindhoven in the south of the Netherlands.
A wave of versatile electronics gadgets has flooded the market in recent years, ranging from MP3 players and home cinema sets to media centers and wireless audio systems, but consumers still find it hard to install and use them, she found. click here for full details
Usability: Too Much of a Good Thing? (emphasis added by WMR)
In a somewhat ironic twist, Nielsen (www.useit.com) illustrates how improved usability can be a big factor in driving up bid prices. When a new online search market emerges, bid prices usually settle out based on the relative conversion performance of the main bid contenders. Based on their current conversion and closing rates, the smarter search marketers determine what they can afford to pay per lead. But let's say that one of the contenders suddenly makes its site a better conversion vehicle, doubling their capture and close rate. Suddenly, that marketer can bid twice as much and still end up with the same per unit ROI. It becomes more aggressive in bidding, and eventually, its competitors wake up, figure out what happened and launch their own improvement cycles. Bid prices escalate as marketers optimize every aspect of their campaign, and the search engines double their revenue by doing nothing. In this scenario, not only are engines leeches on the content of the Internet, they're also sucking the blood out of the entire search marketing industry. The better we get, the more money they make.
Now, before we round up the lynch mob for the engines, there are a few things that have to be said on their behalf. In cases like what was described above, search acts as the initial matchmaker between a site and a prospect. True, if it's a one-time transaction, search can skim off a substantial portion of the value realized from sale, but if it's a situation where lifetime value is a multiple of the first sale, the returns from that search lead will far outweigh the one-time cost. Nielsen also acknowledges that traffic generated from organic referrals doesn't add anything to the search engine coffers. While he dismisses this traffic source in one brief mention, I think it should be realized that search engines have continued to provide this service, devoting a substantial portion of their page real estate to organic listings. 3 out of every 4 users are still clicking on these listings.
excerpted from:
Is Search A Leech On The Internet?
by Gord Hotchkiss , Thursday, February 23, 2006 Media Post Search insider
Index of WMR articles on tips for improving your web site
Read: Proven ways to increase conversions - lessons from multi variable testing
The Case for Courtesy
Conversion Point Architecture a new model for web design.
Building the Best Signup Page
July 2006
Ending Search to build Business!
April 2006
Colorblindness and usability. Todd's widely published review of colorblindness on Microsoft, IBM and Amazon from 1998.
Humor
see error messages we don't recommend!
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