Since becoming part of the larger Nielsen family, we at Nielsen Online have been able to pursue cross-media research more than ever before  with exciting results. Ken Cassar has blogged about his findings regarding the merits of multi-channel retail. Results of a recent Nielsen Online survey show that most consumer-electronics shoppers turn to the Web to conduct product research, but are more likely to make their final purchase in-store. Moreover, multi-channel shoppers tend to spend more in store than offline-only shoppers by as much as 61 percent. These two channels can compliment rather than compete with each other, if retailers build on their unique strengths.

Perhaps to an even greater extent, media brands also find themselves appealing to this free-ranging consumer. ESPN, a true cross-media brand, has been working with Nielsen to determine how ESPN fans navigate across platforms. It might surprise you to learn that users of both ESPN TV and ESPN.com actually spent 27 percent more time watching ESPN TV than TV-only users and 50 percent more time at ESPN.com than Internet-only users. In this case, the more sports, the better!

You can find more details about each of these studies in this month’s Nielsen Consumer Insights newsletter. I encourage you to check it out - it’s another valuable resource based on Nielsen’s wide range of research services and analyst insights.