The complexities of search and its impact on purchasing behavior

[mandy]

While everyone knows the power of Internet search in driving traffic to retail web sites, search can still offer surprises in areas such as its impact on purchasing behavior...

...retailers shouldn’t expect search to always produce immediate results in sales, he said. “People don’t always convert in the same web session when searching...

... it’s important to look at both the amount of traffic as well as sales derived from search as compared to non-search activity. In a study of the retail apparel market, Nielsen found, for example, that 86% of consumers arrived at a retail apparel site directly, by either entering its URL in a web browser or clicking a bookmarked address; 8% arrived through a non-search-related referral such as an affiliate site; and 6% arrived through web search.

full article: http://www.internetretailer.com/dailyNews.asp?id=18888