As more retailers expand their multi-channel reach to consumers, more shoppers will want to comparison shop across offlline and online inventory, industry analysts say.
“Today when you go on a price comparison engine, you usually just see what’s available online and not the store price,” says Hung LeHong, an analyst with research and advisory firm Gartner Inc. “But your local Best Buy might have four items in stock. When store information gets on the web in a bigger way than it is today, that’s when it will get interesting with the comparison shopping engines.”
Combined offline and online product searches are uncommon, though available at PriceRunner.com, a unit of ValueClick Inc.
In another variety of comparison shopping, 2B Wireless Inc.’s mShopper mobile shopping service lets store shoppers check in-store products against products available at online retailers by searching via their cell phones.
And as more consumers shop across multiple retail channels, their expectations are increasing for a consistent multi-channel shopping experience in comparison shopping engines, adds Patricia Freeman Evans, a retail analyst at research and advisory firm JupiterResearch. “Their expectations for multi-channel concurrence are growing, and they want to see where the inventory is,” she says.
Freeman Evans is speaking at the Internet Retailer Conference & Exhibition, June 4-7 in San Jose, in a session entitled
Using Customer Product Reviews to Attract Loyal Shoppers.
Back...
