Survey: Savvy Shoppers Are Ravenous Researchers

Mountain View, Calif. About 67% of today’s Web-savvy shoppers spend more than 30% of their total shopping time researching products on the Web, according to a new study called, “Krillion/e-tailing group Web/Store Cross-Channel Shopping Survey.” The report was released by Krillion, Mountain View, Calif. and the e-tailing group, Chicago.

As the complexity of a product increases, consumers are more likely to conduct research both online and offline, and then complete their purchase offline at a local store, the report said.

Some of these “Web-informed buyers” spend more than 50% of their shopping time researching online. They have also developed sophisticated behaviors and requirements as they use the Web sites of manufacturers and e-tailers to determine what to buy and where to buy it, the study reported.

When they are considering purchasing complicated and information-intensive products such as computers, kitchen appliances and consumer-electronics products, these Web-savvy shoppers consult a wide variety of online resources in a research phase that can begin days, weeks or even months before the actual purchase, the study said.

When shopping for complicated and information-intensive products, manufacturers’ Web sites are ranked as the most essential destination for 72% of the 1,000 shoppers surveyed, followed by online stores operated by retailers (54%), and comparison-shopping engines (50%).