Shoppers spend more when they shop multiple channels at once, IDC says

Most retailers know that shoppers spend more when they shop in a merchant’s multiple channels instead of just one, but shoppers spend even more when they shop multiple channels-such as store, m-commerce and social networks-simultaneously, reports Global Retail Insights, a unit of research and advisory firm IDC.

While multichannel shoppers will spend about 15-30% more than single-channel shoppers, those that shop multiple channels at once-described by IDC as omni-channel shoppers-spend 15-30% more than their multichannel counterparts who shop one channel at a time, IDC analysts Bob Parker and Leslie Hand say.

“The omni-channel shopper wants to use all channels-store, catalog, call center, web, mobile-simultaneously,” the analysts say. “An example would be a shopper with an Android-based phone who snaps a picture of the barcode of a product in a store, immediately does price comparisons on the web and connects to her social network for opinions.” Android is an open-source operating platform for mobile phones

The social shopping aspect of omni-channel shoppers also tends to make them more influential in getting other shoppers to patronize particular retailers, IDC says.