Nielsen: Offline retailers must have an online strategy

Even local businesses need to invest some of their marketing budgets on a solid website, an online advertising campaign and a little bit of content production. That, according to a new report from Nielsen Online. The metrics firm reports that online strategies are linked closely to offline retail dollars.

by Kristina Knight

The report finds that more than three-quarters (80%) of consumer electronics purchasers first visited a store website and then bought the product in-store. This is a huge increase over similar reports from years past and indicates that consumers are first turning to the web and then turning to their local stores.

What is encouraging, especially for local retailers, is that consumers are still purchasing in-store. This report is an indication that consumers are looking for in-stock information so that they don’t have to waste time or gas driving all over their community trying to find the one store that has the product they are interested in.

Providing in-stock information, then, is a good idea for retailers.

Another indicator that retailers need to increase and improve their online presence is that more than half of consumers said they bought their purchase from the store with whose website they spent the most time. Nearly 60% of consumers said the Internet was their first choice for product research and only about one-quarter of consumers would research in-store rather than online.

“A strong web presence with broad and deep online content is critical for all retailers,” said Ken Cassar, vice president of industry insights for Nielsen Online. “Retailers that are able to facilitate consumers’ multi-channel shopping behaviors will enjoy growth in market share across the enterprise.”

If you’re still unsure about exactly how to go multi-channel, Cassar suggests taking a look at media websites. Television, radio and magazine corporations have led the way with multi-channel integration by making content portable and allowing consumers the choice of which content to choose from.