SmallBusinessNewz

Art Technology Group (ATG) has released the results of a recent survey, suggesting that 30% of consumers use over three commerce channels to research an item and make a purchase. Three quarters use two or more channels.

To put these findings into perspective, the firm believes this means merchants need to offer more information on the web to increase sales and improve contact center efficiency.

"Merchants have heard the call for a stronger cross-channel strategy for many years, but what has been lacking is a deeper explanation about why this is so important," said Nina McIntyre, ATG's senior vice president of marketing and chief marketing officer. "We are seeing a multi-channel revolution now, with a vast majority of consumers using multiple channels and now almost one-third actually relying on three or more channels to complete transactions."

"Retailers must direct their energy toward fulfilling the unique role and sales potential of each channel," added McIntyre. "This research illuminates the expectations consumers have for the Web, call centers, the store, catalogs, and email."

Highlights from the survey:

- 78% said they use two or more channels to browse, research and make purchases; 30% said they use three channels or more

- 43% said they start their research online or through a mobile device, but then need to call a customer service or call center representative to complete the transaction because the necessary product or service information cannot be found online

- 39% said they browse via the online or mobile channel and then make purchases in the store because they prefer to touch and feel the product; 36% said do this to compare several brands of the same product

- 78% of all consumers say they use catalogs to browse and research products or services at least four times a year

- 27% of all consumers 18 and older use their mobile devices to browse or research products and services at least four times a year, and that number jumps to 41% for the 18-34 year-old age group

- When it comes to making purchases, 13% of all consumers 18 and older are doing this on their mobile devices at least four times a year; 23% of the 18-34 age group are doing this at least four times a year and 8% are doing it weekly

Businesses should track how effective their online marketing efforts are offline. WebProNews had an interesting discussion about this concept with Salesforce.com's Global Head of Search, Lauren Vaccarello recently. Watch that here.