• by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, May 11, 2006

"Clicks have not replaced bricks." That's one of the main conclusions of a new report by Yahoo and Omnicom Group's OMD about the complicated role the Internet plays in consumers' shopping behavior.

The report, conducted with the help of Ipsos and Conifer Research, confirmed that most purchases are still made offline, at brick-and-mortar stores, but that consumers use the Web to research products.

"The Internet, along with related technologies like camera phones and text messaging, have given consumers a new kind of 'social empowerment' as they gather information before they shop. More than two-thirds of shoppers across several product categories still make the bulk of their purchases at physical retail locations--yet nearly two-thirds (62 percent) use a combination of online and offline sources to gather information before they buy," Yahoo said in a statement explaining the report.

Of course, that information is consistent with a plethora of retail statistics. But the more intriguing question--and far harder one to answer--is exactly how the Web affects particular purchases.

The Yahoo-OMD study has no hard-and-fast answer to that question--and maybe there simply won't ever be an answer. In some ways, even posing the question appears analogous to asking how to determine return on investment from branding campaigns--a notoriously difficult, if not impossible, endeavor.

Meanwhile, Yahoo and OMD did break out some new facts shedding light on ways in which consumers gather information online. The report, based on a recent survey of more than 4,300 U.S. adults, and qualitative research with 13 participants, stated that 27 percent of respondents have posted new-product reviews, and 16 percent read reviews before making a purchase. And more than half--55 percent--said they signed up to receive e-mail from stores or companies they regularly buy from, while 46 percent have signed up for e-mail regarding discounts for products they want to purchase.