New study shows growing impact of online research on in-store purchases

A recent study published by Bazaarvoice found that in-store buying behavior is significantly influenced by online research. The report, The ROBO economy (Research Online Buy Offline), showed that 82% of smartphone users check their phone for in-store purchases and 45% read reviews before making a purchase.

ROBO scores vary by category with automotive, wearable tech, health and beauty, electronics, tools and hardware, and toys and games leading the way with over 50% of all offline purchases. preceded by reading an online review. The lowest categories were clothing, footwear, and food for men and women, each with a ROBO score below 20%.

Pre-purchase online research was often linked to online shopping behavior, but ROBO research indicates that almost $ 5 is spent in-store for every dollar spent online as a result of online research.

Sara Spivey, CMO of Bazaarvoice explained how the research was conducted. “We added two simple questions to our post-interaction emails. So when you buy something and you get the interaction email from the retailer that says, “Please rate this review and give us your rating and text to see if you like it or not.” We added two simple questions: “Did you buy this online or in store?” And “Did you do any research online before making the purchase?” With these two components, and knowing how much of their business was online versus offline, we can create a mathematical equation that then creates the multiple ROBO. So over time we collect data points, over 4.5 million data points about it in 882 categories last year. Data shows that for every dollar spent online, $ 4.82 was spent in-store. “

Consumer behavior is changing and online search is becoming more common in many categories. Spivey said, “The big surprise for me was the increase in what I would have considered low-consideration categories before they sparked a lot of action in terms of online research and in-store buying. . Maybe it’s because they go to mass retailers and buy a bunch of things. They researched coffee makers, but they also researched which pod is best. “

One of the challenges retailers face in fully grasping the importance of online research is separating their e-commerce and brick-and-mortar businesses. This siled behavior is also starting to change, says Spivey. “I would say that overall the idea that the two have to work together is more adopted. I am thinking of a specific case where the dot-com head office was in one city and the rest in another city. But they made changes such that everyone’s top management now reports to one person with a purpose and a financial goal. I think they got the idea, “We don’t care where you buy it”. I think part of that is because they are catching up with the consumer to some extent. The consumer wants the same experience. They don’t want to have to think outside the box to find out if there is a benefit or a consequence to where they are buying. It must be removed. “

Spivey continued, “Retailers, the ones that go where the consumer goes, do a great job. Others not so much. But we certainly see, even since I joined in 2015, the progress that retailers have made in this area. “We don’t really care where you buy, we focus on the experience of how you buy” has become much more prevalent. “

Improving a brand’s or retailer’s online product search resources is often part of a company’s digital transformation initiative. However, the success of these transformation projects is often mixed. Spivey shared his perspective: “I would say the ones I’ve seen who have done a great job are the ones who are really clear on the problem they’re trying to solve. “Can digital transformation help us? And how would we do that? ‘ rather than digital transformation for the sake of digital transformation. This is to what end. Under Armor is a good example. If you look at what they’re trying to do with integrating health and fitness, and capturing a lot of digital information, to what end? The ending is, “We wanna sell Under Armor stuff.” But it’s really about marrying people’s interests and their activity levels and what they’re doing for their own well-being and how Under Armor can help them with products and services. And they take it all off the watch, the Fitbit, and the shoes. So I think those at the forefront of digital transformation are people who are looking for ways to take digital data and personalize it based on what they know about the person and marry those two things. .