Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

Online Shopping is Constant, Yet Online Buying is Not

Emarketer reports that a 2014 survey showed that 78% of respondents said they often partook in “webrooming,” before going to a brick and mortar store to purchase. This is a form of showrooming, since it’s convenient to conduct research and compare prices online.

Analysts assume that this is such a common trend because customers often want to touch and examine the products via online shops before buying. Obviously this trend could go the opposite way, with consumers looking at items in-store, then buying online for the cheaper prices, but surveys show that it’s rather common to actually make the purchase in-store.

Why is this the case? Because the internet is filled with information for comparisons, so even though the stores have a lack of information, it has been serving some of them quite well....

More and more sensors and smart devices are coming online each day. They stream data to massive data warehouses. Analytics software can be exposed via cloud-based offerings, offering summaries and implications of that data to any consumer for very low or zero cost.

The implication of the Internet of Things is a do-it-yourself market prediction engine. Any individual with a product to sell will be able to analyze market trends, adapt to consumer behavior, create marketing strategies, build products, and even make deliveries with drones or self-driving cars, all from the comfort of his or her own home....