National Retailers Must Embrace Localization On Internet

An interesting column in AdAge earlier this month stated that larger national retailers are going to have to begin to bend their marketing and web site efforts to meet shoppers growing need demand for locally relevant content argues. One of the biggest areas for opportunity is local search. Below is a short clip from the article that goes onto elloborate on the demand, growth and currently available technology solutions for creating relevant local search results:

"National retailers are also failing miserably in providing consumers with a relevant online local search experience. Industry prognosticators report that anywhere from 25% to 40% of the 5 billion monthly search engine queries are local in intent: A 2004 study by The Kelsey Group and BizRate.com, based on 5,000 online buyers, found that 25% of commercial searches were local. Another Kelsey study in December 2003 found that 60% of all searches were local in nature. And a March 2006 study by eMarketer found that "the growth of local search will outstrip national search in every year from 2005 through 2010."

Of course, Google and Yahoo pay attention to large numbers. Each is competing to develop local search results that provide relevant local information, including maps and consumer reviews of local businesses. For example, Google late last month launched a paid service that lets local advertisers place display ads for their businesses within the map that appears along with local search results. Search-engine upstarts such as Metrobot, which arrays merchants on street-level pedestrian-friendly maps, and TrueLocal, which winnows search results to actual bricks-and-mortar stores, are delivering on the consumer's desire to have a local Internet experience.

While most national retailers use search engine optimization techniques to make their Web sites pop up when a consumer types in their store name and a city, or a product category and a city, the payoff to the consumer is anything but "local." The consumer ends up at the retailer's main home page, where she must then search again for her desired product and then navigate to the store locator feature, which merely provides a map and telephone number.

Some technology companies are developing solutions that allow retailers to create more relevant local search results. For example, ShopLocal, Local Thunder and ReachLocal have each developed unique platforms-with different emphases-that allow retailers to create relevant content to respond to local search queries. The Local Thunder platform also features a technology that builds local-content landing pages that operate off the retailer's Store Locator feature and local search-engine queries."

To read the entire article, go to: http://www.adage.com/article.php?article_id=108378