Online ‘presale’ shopping is expected to double in 2011, with presale shopping portal Lasoo.com.au recording a record 5.6 million product interactions in December last year, with the exponential growth of online pre-shopping expected to continue in 2011.
According to Lasso, the popularity of pre-purchase research was highlighted in the three months leading up to Christmas when 257.8 products were viewed on Lasoo every second.
Importantly for bricks and mortar retailers, more than two million Lasoo visitors acknowledged visiting a physical store following their Lasoo research, with 75 percent subsequently making a purchase.
One of the stand-out trends of the latter part of 2010 was a rise in the number of consumers looking to access and research retail purchases using mobile devices. Fifteen million catalogue pages were viewed on consumer mobile devices using Lasoo’s mobile application in the Christmas season. The most popular device used was the Apple iPhone, followed by the iPad, Android App and Windows 7 devices.
Paul Marshall, Executive General Manager of Lasoo expects Australians to continue to buy online from overseas retailers due to the high Australian dollar, but reiterates that local retailers are in a strong position to do business with Australians who start their presale journey online.
”Australian consumers buying direct from offshore retailers will continue to be a reality in 2011.The strong Australian dollar, greater range of products and brands, customer service, price and most importantly the overall online shopping experience, are all factors which have led to 43 percent (according to a study by PayPal) of online sales going offshore. The GST saving would have only a small influence over this, if any at all.”
“Sales transactions that occurred online represent a small percentage of total retail sales; whilst online research influenced 50 percent of sales that occurred in Australia’s bricks-and-mortar retail stores. So the big prize still remains, with a strong focus on reaching and influencing the shopper who is online. Both online marketing and online commerce need to be part of a retailer’s multichannel strategy,” he said.
