ShopLocal Data Confirms “W2S” Trend

Empirical research has a habit of confirming what people already know.

In this case, ShopLocal and The Dieringer Group released a study, which tracked consumer shopping during the final three months of 2004. The study found that so-called Web-to-Store shoppers?"those consulting the Internet before buying locally?"spent almost twice as much offline for every dollar then spent online. That trend/discrepancy was even greater for ??affluent shoppers? according to the study.

The Dieringer Group estimated that over 80 million Americans made local purchases that were influenced by the Internet in one way or another. That was up 19 percent from the same period last year.

And it??s only going to become more so. All consumer trends point to increased usage of the Internet for product research and local lookups. These changing consumer behaviors and the implications for advertisers are what our ??Online-Offline Opportunity? event is about. I'm happy to say the agenda is finally available.