Mele’s Musings

At-work web browsing leads to in-store purchases, study shows

More time at work just means more shopping at work, too.

Picture: Blogs.chron.com

Article excerpt:  There’s more than work going on in those cubes, and no wonder with U.S. consumers spending 60% of their waking hours at work, according to WorkPlace Media, which distributes advertiser offers and samples to employees through their companies.  47% of employees say they went online from work to research electronics in the past 90 days and then made a purchase in a store, according to a survey by market research firm Bigresearch for WorkPlace Media. 40% say they researched and then bought apparel, 34% check out restaurants, 21% food and grocery items and 20% shoes. In a separate survey, Bigresearch found 29.4% of working consumers say they regularly shop online from work.  “We’re spending more and more of our hours at work, so we’ve got to get more done, even if it involves personal stuff,” says Dan Wheeler, executive vice president of WorkPlace Media. “We’re all trying to get much more done during the workday, including researching and making purchases at work.”
The rest: internetretailer.com

Musing:  Really interesting that people are more likely to research online and then purchase in store.  It seems that it would be more efficient to do both at the same time, but maybe work time is just the opportunity to make us smart before they go into stores – we don’t want to ask dumb questions!  The water-cooler conversation aspect of online research at work is interesting as well.  We know that people like to discuss what they are buying and researching, but the numbers are astounding – 0ver 90% give or seek advice at work.  We completely underestimate the importance of consumer experience online if we overlook this piece.  It simply highlights how vital good online experiences are.