A service that lets consumers shopping on manufacturers’ web sites link directly to retailers’ sites produced a 33% year-to-year rise in 2004 sales, to more than $3 billion from $2.4 billion, Channel Intelligence Inc. reports.
Channel Intelligence provides links between the web sites of about 100 manufacturers and 400 retailers, including such names as Kodak, Hewlett-Packard, Samsung, Best Buy, RadioShack and Target. Last year, consumers on Channel Intelligence’s client manufacturers’ web sites clicked to view retailer’s listings valued at a total of more than $9 billion, up from $6 billion in 2003, a spokesman says. Consumers last year went onto make a purchase 38% of the time, maintaining close to the same conversion rate from 2003. Channel Intelligence figures its conversion rates on the number of shoppers who complete a purchase within seven days after clicking from a manufacturer’s site to a retailer’s site.
Channel Intelligence provides two versions of its linking service. Its SellPath Product Links let shoppers link within two clicks from a product listing on a manufacturer’s site to the buy page on a participating retailer’s site. Activity in SellPath Product Links resulted in 11 million leads and $2.4 billion in sales last year.
Its SellPath Product Pinpointer service supports in-store sales by letting shoppers on manufacturers’ sites view current availability of specific products within participating stores. The Product Pinpointer service led to 4 million leads and about $800 million in sales.
Combined, the two SellPath services generated $3.2 billion in retail sales, up 33% from $2.4 billion in 2003.
Channel Intelligence charges its manufacturer SellPath clients monthly subscription fees starting at about $1,000 based on the number and purchase prices of their SKUs. It charges no fees to retailers for the SellPath services.
It also provides product data syndication services to which retailers and manufacturers can each subscribe.
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