In a recent study by California Institute of Technology on consumer retail spending and published by Storefrontbacktalk blog, consumers are willing to spend up to 50% more when they shop in-store versus online. We all know online marketing drives and influences in-store purchasing behavior, but until now, we didn’t quite have metrics around how much more people are likely to buy in-store when compared to purchasing online. However, this is not surprising. Logic has it that in many retail categories, people will browse in-store and simply buy more things they would like to have but don’t need. Merchandising is much more effective in driving impulse purchases that the savviest online product-recommendation engine. People can be laser focused when shopping online. If they need one product, they can buy one product without the allure of other accessories at the register. However, incentives like free shipping over a certain purchase amount can have the reverse benefit of getting people to buy ancillary items just to qualify for the free shipping deal. One could also make the argument that price wars on the internet have depressed prices online when compared to the same goods sold offline. Inherently, people buying the same product offline will pay more (i.e. spend more), contributing to the over-spending in-store. Either way, this was a very interesting study that aims to quantify why retailers prefer customers shop in-store than online.
