In-Store Marketing Begins at Home

The Internet has changed many things, including shopping. Among the bigger changes is the amount of research shoppers do before they actually go to a retail location. In other words, a shopper's "buying" process begins before any retailer's "selling process" begins. The implication is that the sales process has to catch people when they are conducting buying research, not after they have finished that research.

Since shoppers now conduct research before they enter a store, retailers have to move up their promotional activities to match the buyer's process, instead of waiting until a shopper is physically on the premises. Saatchi X, for example, used to find that 10 percent of client projects included an online component. Now, virtually 100 percent include an online presence.

Some 62 percent of shoppers surveyed by Booz & Co. report they searched online for deals before they began shopping trips, the Wall Street Journal reports. That might explain why there is new interest in content marketing, where brands invest in various types of online content. It no longer makes sense to be invisible when shoppers are making choices. Rather, brands need to be visible online, when buying processes already are occurring.

It's well known that consumers research expensive products like electronics online, but coming out of the recession, consumers are more scrupulous about researching their everyday products such as diapers and detergent, too, the Wall Street Journal reports.

More than 20 percent of them also research food and beverages, nearly a third research pet products and 39 percent research baby products, even though they ultimately tend to buy those products in stores, according to WSL Strategic Retail, a consulting firm.

The importance of online communications obviously is much higher, and more necessary, if one assumes that key decisions are being made in the virtual sphere. If buyers are making more decisions before they go to a store, then it is important to try and steer traffic towards stores before the more traditional promotion campaigns retailers often have relied upon, in store, can take place.

Content marketing then becomes the first step in the sales process.

In-Store Marketing Begins at Home - WSJ.com (subscription required)