Friday, November 18, 2005
Online Shopping Continues To Increase
byBack when the Yellow Pages were about the only form of “search” for shopping, they launched a Yellow Pages campaign that suggested you should “let your fingers do the walking.” It was a good campaign at the time because it pointed to a real benefit and, of course, it was just about the only game in town. The Yellow Pages Association still uses a form of the “fingers” logo from the decades-old campaign.
Times have changed...mostly because of the Web and more specifically, search engines. We are approaching one billion searches per day on major search engines. People are letting their fingers do the walking, but this time it is on the keyboard. And unlike the old yellow pages, the Internet allows people to buy when they find where they want to shop.
A new study by WSL Strategic Retail, highlighted yesterday in a story on ClickZ, indicates a continuing increase in the percentage of people who shop online. The average shopper now spends an average of 3.1 hours per week online shopping. Another interesting fact is that much of this shopping occurs during the business day.
One reason online advertising and search engine marketing are becoming increasingly important is because they allow advertisers to reach people who are considering or buying during their business day. This fact may not be good for the productivity of business, but it certainly is salient to people who sell their products online.
Categories showing the biggest increase in online shopping since a 2003 study included offfice supplies, photo supplies, prescriptions, jewelry and electronics. The ClickZ article has a number of other interesting stats.
