Online Shoppers Need More Info to Trigger Buys

If you want online shoppers to purchase, you need to offer them a lot more information from a lot more channels than in the past. A recent Multichannel Merchant article from ExactTarget made that point with a quote from ExactTarget’s President of Convince & Convert Jay Baer: “According to research conducted by Google, in 2010, consumers needed 5.3 sources of information before making a purchase. In 2011, just one year later, they needed 10.4 sources. In just 12 months, the amount of information needed to pull the ‘buying trigger’ doubled. Why? Are we less decisive? More risk adverse? No. We need more information because we have more information.” The article suggests that one solution to the rising demand for information is "cross-channel marketing," meaning building marketing strategies that enable you to interact with consumers across the channels that consumers use most. Some ideas with informative/engagement impact include e-mailed in-store receipts, Facebook opt-in campaigns, digital alerts on new pricing, new models or low inventory. For more, see the article at http://multichannelmerchant.com/lists/how-to-spring-clean-with-customer-acquisition-23042013/