The Next Wave of E-CommerceBlueport.com

All retailers want to know that the money they spend online is coming back to them some way, somehow.  It's become a mantra that the majority of consumers who buy in stores research online first, but in truth, it can be hard to follow customers from their keyboards to retailers’ registers.

We at Blueport see the value that local e-commerce and online marketing bring to our brick-and-mortar clients every day.  But, it certainly helps when a company like Google offers Online to Store research that quantifies cross-channel results.

Google set out to prove that online advertising leads to in-store sales.  For one national retailer, testing keyword advertising specific to one product category not only lifted in-store sales for that category by 3.6%, but the online advertising had a halo effect, lifting sales in all other categories by 1%.  And, the bigger the ticket, the better the results were.

HP Case Study Shows ROI Is Higher with Bigger-Ticket Items

The Google Retail Advertising Blog post about Hewlett-Packard and the study discusses the following findings:

• Overall, HP’s online to store campaign had a 530% overall return on ad spend
• The top 25% of markets in the test had a 1,090% return on ad spend
• Higher-end models correlated with a higher increase in store sales.

How Can You See Your Own In-Store Return on Your Online Presence?

In an interview, analytics evangelist Avinash Kaushik offers some ideas for getting quantitative information on how your online efforts contribute to in-store sales.

Some ideas you might be able to implement for your retail business:

• Offer an online survey as consumers exit your website, asking where they plan to buy and how likely they are to buy based on the experience they’ve had online.
• In-stores, include a call-to-action to take an online survey for a chance to be entered into a sweepstakes and ask questions about where their interactions with your brand began.
• Use a store card program, where you have a number attached to customers when they interact with and buy from you online and in-store.
• Allow customers to order online and pickup in-store, and then track additional in-store purchases as a result of the pickup.

We're just at the beginning of this trend.  As localized e-commerce gains traction and enables synchronized web to local store marketing, we'll start to see new sectors of retail get even more involved (and see even better results).  In the meantime, even this simple test shows how stores can -- and in today's world, must -- harness the power of online marketing.


Related posts:
 

• Multichannel Communication: A Marketer’s Dream or Nightmare?
• Engaging Customers at Every Purchase Touchpoint
• Cross Channel Commerce: How The Home Depot 'Gets It'
• Ecommerce Marketing: Multichannel Analysis Is a Must!

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