Shoppers cross channels on both sides of the Atlantic

If more evidence was needed that shoppers are increasingly comfortable not only with multichannel shopping, but also cross-channel shopping, then look no further than the recent survey from US-based online recommendation firm RichRelevance and retail consultancy Envirosell.

The survey, conducted in New York and in London, found that one in four non-buyers left a high-street store with plans to continue shopping for the desired item online. In London, almost half of all shoppers surveyed left the store empty-handed.

Shoppers outside stores such as Marks & Spencer, Debenhams, Primark, and BHS were questioned about their online and offline shopping habits and responses, and results compared with those from an identical survey carried out in New York. Whilst the figures for New York survey show identical willingness to cross channels, when it came to using the internet to conduct product research, however, there were stark differences.  While merely a third of the London shoppers said that they used the internet for product research, 85 percent New Yorkers claimed to have compared prices online prior to shopping in-store. 

In the white paper accompanying the research, RichRelevance writes that “in a world where shoppers check online prices via an iPhone and then exit the store to head for a competitor, retailers can no longer afford to manage channels as separate organisational silos.” It advises retailers to adapt to the needs of the multichannel shopper and “seamlessly accommodate web-to-store, store-to-web, phone-to-web and any other multi-channel transactions that shoppers want—for not only buying goods but also for pickups and returns.” What’s more, prices and promotions must be consistent across channels.