Big-Ticket E-Commerce Marketing StrategyBlueport.com

This week I read about an interesting report from IBM, titled “Capitalizing on the Smarter Consumer.”  It contains the results of the company's recent survey of 30,000 consumers about how they shop and why.  This is the latest report to underscore just how much technology is driving e-commerce growth and affecting consumers' shopping habits.  According to IBM, consumers are more comfortable than ever using the Internet, mobile technologies, in-store tools and other innovations to research and buy products.

Most interesting was IBM’s identification of the “instrumental customer”: a consumer who uses two or more technologies to shop. According to IBM, this constitutes a growing number of shoppers, with 49 percent of survey respondents falling into this category (up 36 percent from last year).

Other findings of note:

• 75 percent of consumers would shop on a retailer's e-commerce store
• 39 percent would use in-store kiosks, a 10 percent increase over last year
• 25 percent want to shop via the mobile channel, up from 13 percent
• 78 to 84 percent of consumers now rely on their social networks when researching new products

IBM's research is in line with what we see amongst our multichannel retail clients' customers -- the growing number of technologies and tools at their fingertips is helping customers make more informed decisions and is changing how they go about their research and purchasing process. Their path to purchase may no longer be a straightforward visit to the store -- or even a simple visit to a retailer's website! Today's smarter consumers may research and browse across numerous channels before ultimately buying the product.  Rather than see this as a marketing challenge, we work with our clients to identify new opportunities for engaging shoppers through multichannel communication.

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