E-commerce sales are growing rapidly, but the vast majority of consumer spending is still carried out in the physical stores of the stores, although it is true that a large part of these sales are influenced by online research, mainly from your desktop computers.
However, more and more consumers are taking advantage of the capabilities of Smartphones, which allows them to delve even further into this research and do it from anywhere, even from the street or in the store itself.
“While online sales are measured in billions of dollars, in-store sales that have been influenced by previous online research are trillions of dollars,” explains Jeffrey Grau, analyst at eMarketer.
“The desktop computer has been the most used by buyers to conduct product research, but there are indications that an important part of this activity is moving towards mobile and social platforms,” he added.
70% of consumers conduct online research before going to a store or restaurant, according to a recent Harris Interactive survey, which showed that Google is the main source of traffic 13 percentage points ahead of the yellow pages. But consumers also conduct research in the reviews of other portals (13%) and Facebook (12%).
As the penetration of the Internet and Smartphones increases, the pre-purchase research moves more and more towards mobiles, and that is why retailers have a great appreciation for these devices, due to the way they run the traffic to your stores.
According to a study conducted by Retail Systems Research, a large number of retailers around the world said that thanks to Smartphones, traffic to their stores increased from 20% in 2010 to 31% this year.
“Retailers that invest in mobile technologies not only help to avoid competition, but also create a more convenient and rewarding shopping experience for consumers, and they have the ability to easily find product and product information. the promotional coupons, which in turn inspires the loyalty of the customers.