• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, January 29, 2002

Of more importance to strategic buyers than how much was spent this holiday season is how consumers decided how to spend it. DoubleClick Inc. unveiled the results of its Holiday Shopping study, which reveals that consumers are leveraging multiple channels to make purchasing decisions across many categories.

David Rosenblatt, President of DoubleClick, concluded that ''Results from this data demonstrate the need for marketers to have tools in place in order to better measure how one channel is driving sales to another channel. Consumers will continue to browse in one channel and purchase in another, reflecting their goal to find the best selection, service and pricing. Tracking these results by channel represents an enormous opportunity for marketers if they align their promotional dollars with this trend.''

Multi-channel shoppers who browse or purchase through more than one channel (retail store, catalog, Internet), reported using all three channels in symbiosis for browsing and purchasing over the holiday season. They cited price, selection and convenience of catalogs, the speed and the 24-hour availability of the Internet, and the ability to see and sample products at retail stores, as reasons for purchasing through respective channels. In general, however, the retail channel still dominated holiday purchasing for the multi-channel consumer.

- 66% of multi-channel shoppers browse in one channel but purchase in another
- 46% of women and 43% of men browsed on the Internet and purchased at retail stores
- 37% of women and 28% of men browsed through catalogs and purchased at retail stores
- Half of those that browsed in a catalog and purchased online (53% of women and 38% of men) used a product code from the catalog
- 45% of consumers preferred to browse on the Internet for home electronics and computer software/hardware (50%) in particular
- 53% preferred to purchase products such as music, movies and books online
- Consumers that either browsed or purchased in all three transaction channels spent $995 on holiday shopping, compared with consumers who browsed or purchased in two channels ($894) and consumers who only used one channel ($591)

Find out more here.