Majority of product searches take a month or more to lead to a sale

Source – New Media Age

Only a fraction of search queries lead to an immediate sale, with close to a third of consumers taking longer than two months to make a purchase.

According to findings from a joint project by Yahoo!, ComScore and The Search Works, out of all internet searches, just 3% of consumers purchase during their first session.

Just under two-fifths (37%) of consumers purchase within a month of their search, while 32% take up to two months and 28% don't buy until three months after their search.

The report also revealed that while 54% of consumers who use search engines buy on the web, as many as 46% purchase offline.

Stewart Hunter, group account director for retail at The Search Works, said the report showed the influence the web, and strong search campaigns in particular, have on consumer buying habits.

"There's a real, significant link between online sales and offline purchasing," he said. "Retailers are now thinking a lot harder about the connection between their high street stores and the web, with the casual surfer more incentivised to maybe reserve online and pick up in-store."

The research followed 150,000 keywords from ComScore's panel of 100,000 consumers, combined with a survey of 754 people.

Retail brands take top spots for providing best online experience

Source – New Media Age

Play.com is the best performing brand site for customer experience, according to Forrester Research.

It surveyed more than 1,000 consumers about 25 brands to reveal how consumers rate their interactions on usefulness, usability and enjoyability of their experience.

Play came top with an overall score of 85%, followed by Amazon UK on 82% and John Lewis with 77%.

The worst site was British Gas, which scored just 27% overall - 46% for usefulness, 32% for ease of use and just 2% for enjoyment.

Craig Menzies, senior analyst at Forrester Research, said, "Lloyds TSB, the highest-rated bank, was the only non-retailer in the top 11 organisations. These results are in line with our 2007 US results where retailers dominate the top of the list."

While the top seven brands in the study were all retailers, the bottom seven spots belonged to mobile operators, ISPs and utility companies.

Among the poor performers were ISPs AOL with 33% and Virgin/NTL Telewest on 36%.

"The best showing in these sectors was from T-Mobile, which ended up 17th with 57%," said Menzies.

Forrester asked 1,180 consumers last month about their interactions with 25 popular brands. A score over 80% was considered excellent. Only Play.com achieved a high score for enjoyability, with 71%.