The customer online purchase behavior starts 50% with searches. They start first with the generic item term like watches, TV, or flash drives. As they learn more and are closer to their purchase they then search for the brand name like Tommy Bahama, Sony, or Scan Disk. Of the 50% of searches conducted before a purchase most are completed before the purchase is made. And what’s more most people DO NOT purchase in the first session.
I found it funny that the professor asked if we ever thought about that before. As marketing majors I would hope so. But, it’s not even a matter of stopping to think “oh that’s a cool fact about Internet shopping” because it is a fact of all shopping.
There is some form of research in all purchase decisions even down to the “impulse buys”. The purchase search period of impulse buys like gum or a sale shirt was based on a search for the best flavor through trail and error with other fruits and flavors or the search for cheap fashions.
All consumers have a behavioral pattern and it is interesting to explore them even though they may be obvious, to help better design a website or Internet marketing campaign that successful reaches the target and sticks with them every step of the way.
Thus, a good site should follow the follow of their customers purchase behavior. For food it should have a suggestion, a menu and a check out. For music it should have genre-> artist->samples -> reviews-> check out. Samples before reviews because bad statement may bar the the impression a sound could make as it would lead the consumer to move right along. With B2B the site should flow with manufactured products, reputation and brands, price and quote. It would be good for the site to include competitors as they would keep the consumer from clicking off and forgeting who the company was. Competitor listing would retain that researcher.
A good Internet marketing campaign would create stickiness with content and proper flow based on the customer base.
What is the right flow to match the consumer behavior of drinkers online.
What to drink tonight ? To start?
What is the proper flow of a community site? Of an e-Magazine?
