Comparrisons Between US & Europe Consumer Multi-Channel Behavior

Here is a nice summary that one of our great analyst here at ShopLocal put together (thanks Chris!) of the recent Forrester teleconference that was held on Monday June 25, 2007. The topic was The State of MultiChannel Shoppers in The US and Europe and it was lead by Tamara Mendelsohn.

• European consumers are making the move to multichannel shopping
  • By 2011, 54% European consumers (16 and older) will shop online
• Consumers using the internet for their shopping
  • 79% of US online consumers researched products online during the past 3 months
  • 87% of European online consumers researched products online during the past 3 months
  • 57% of US online consumers purchased products online during the same period
  • 53% of European online consumers purchased products online during the same period
• Online Consumer Demographics
  • European
    • Females now 50% of market from 37% more than 4 years ago
    • Younger than the US counterpart; down from 39 to 37
    • 62% are using broadband
  • US
    • 55% female from 47% over 4 years ago
    • Average age has climbed from 43 to 45
    • 55% are using broadband
• Web shoppers in Europe tend to be newer to the internet than the US counterpart.
  • 53% of EU web buyers have been purchasing online less than 2 years
  • 28% of US web buyers have been purchasing online less than 2 years
• 51% of US online consumers are cross-channel shoppers (research online purchase offline last 3 months)
• 57% of EU online consumers are cross-channel shoppers (research online purchase offline last 3 months)
• Consumer electronics is the top cross-channel category in the US (ranked by purchases)
• Apparel is the top cross-channel category in the EU; CE is the 3^rd category
• www.Argos.co.uk has taken several of the successful US tactics and applied it to their retail site
• Recommendations
  • Cross-channel trends both in US and EU continue to prove a need for the SL business model
    • Eventual entrance into the EU market seems to be the next logical step
  • Inventory management is growing increasingly more important to cross-channel shoppers
  • The potential up-sell when cross-channel consumers purchase offline averages over $150/shopping trip
    • Retailers would rely on CSE’s or Local players to drive in-store traffic both here and abroad