The multichannel mix, by the numbers

According to the Transactis Home Shopping Index, which is based on the actual transactions of 39 million customers across 205 home shopping brands, growth in online sales is slowing down as the channel reaches maturity. The index, which covers the five years between 2006 and 2010, shows that online shopping growth has slowed to 8 percent in 2010, down from 20 percent in 2009, 35 percent in 2008 and a 58 percent growth in 2007. During that five-year period, overall spend across all home shopping channels climbed by 14 percent.

The Index also cemented what most of us suspected already: multichannel customers spend more than single-channel customers. In supplementary research, which examined the purchasing of 250,000 multichannel consumers versus those shopping through a single channel, those using a mix of media, such as catalogues and web, made 50 percent more orders and spent nearly double that of online-only or offline-only buyers and, even when consumers migrated from 100 percent offline to 100 percent online, they were still spending considerably less than those who continued to use multiple channels.

Yet more research, this time by consultancy Logan Tod & Co, notes the value of catalogues in driving online spend—especially at Christmas. In its December 2011 online shopping survey of future retail trends, 60 percent of those surveyed indicated they had browsed a catalogue and then gone on to purchase online, compared to just 39 percent in 2010. In addition, 39 percent of respondents said they researched products online before purchasing in store, a 22 percent increase on the previous year.