ECOMMERCE BUYING PHASES
Displaying the right message at the right time
Statistics provided by Nielsen / NetRatings:
There were approx. 174million people online in July 2007 who performed 6.4
billion search queries:
• 66% on http://google.com
• 20% on http://yahoo.com
• 10% on http://msn.com (not counting live search)
• 1-2% other engines
Women are statistically using alternative engines more than men - while men are more likely to use google.com only. If your product or service is marketable to women, don’t neglect these alternative traffic sources.
62% of search activity occurs prior to purchase - searching begins up to 60 days before
• PHASE 1: 60-20 days before – users are conducting high level
brand research
• PHASE 2: 20-same day - product specific / comparative search queries
Ecommerce marketers must focus on saying the right thing at the right time. Don’t display BUY NOW messages in the investigative phase 1.
Companies portraying the right message at the right time have the opportunity to retain customers through the phase 1 - or become a master of phase 2, by winning the comparative phase through top price / shipping discounts etc.
Searchers tend to focus all of their searches on a given topic within a
single engine. It is important to display a consistent branding image throughout
the engine you are advertising in. Certain engines have ecommerce specific
sections – Google products, MSN shopping, Yahoo! Shopping. If a user
begins their search at phase 1 with one of these engines, they are more
likely to follow through with a purchase within these engines rather than
switch to another top level engine midway through the phase.