At the risk of stealing my own thunder, here is the most interesting slide from a presentation that I’ll be giving this week at the Internet Retailer conference. This is based on a survey that we ran during May, where we looked at cross channel (online/offline) usage among 659 people (US only) that had purchased consumer electronics (either online or offline) within the past 60 days. We found that a surprisingly large percent had utilized multiple channels in the course of researching and purchasing. 64% of those that visited local stores (to either see/touch/evaluate the product or to talk to a salesperson) also used the Web to research the purchase. 50% of those that used the Web to research the purchase also visited the store. The data points below, though, really blew me away.

More than half of brick and mortar buyers that used the Web to research the purchase said that they wound up buying from the retailer whose site they spent the most time researching. Equally interesting, 80% said that they had purchased from a retailer whose site they had visited first. I’ve seen a lot of multi-channel impact stats out there over the years, but I don’t know that I’ve seen a data point that so clearly makes the case for the importance of a solid Web site and strong multi-channel integration.

Yeah, yeah, this just looks at consumer electronics, which may be an extreme example, but take a look at the data below, looking at guys that you wouldn’t think of as multi-channel bellwethers…This is Homescan Online data (really old Homescan Online data, 2005) that looks at spending levels among multi-channel shoppers. You can see that multi-channel shoppers spend a LOT more than the average shopper. People that both shop at CVS’ brick and mortar stores and that visit its site spend, on average, 57% more than the average CVS shopper. 61% for Walgreen and Costco, 37% more for Sam’s and 38% for Wal-Mart.

Many of you are asking yourselves whether this is a simple reflection of loyalty, or whether multi-channel behavior causes higher spending, and it is a fair question. However, either way you slice it, these guys are valuable. Whether strong multi-channel integration rewards your most loyal shoppers or compels higher levels of spending, it seems pretty clear that it’s a good thing for retailers.

Tags: internet retailer, multi-channel integration, online retail