With a staggering $4.4 trillion dollars of offline sales a year, in-store spending still trumps e-commerce. The challenge, however, is to clearly attribute ad spend to actual brick-and-mortar visits. That’s critical to determining the ROI and actual behavioral impact of a campaign.
But what if you could pay only for a store visit?
GroundTruth’s new Cost Per Visit allows marketers to pay only for verified visits to their store, shifting accountability of a campaign from the buyer to GroundTruth. The third-party validated solution removes uncertainty from traditional media buying; advertisers know the actual value of a store visit. Instead of impressions or clicks, they pay only when the consumer becomes an actual shopper.
Cost Per Visit demonstrates why brick-and-mortar visits are more important than ever:
E-commerce isn’t as big you think
The U.S. Census Bureau reports that 90 percent of all commerce still happens in-store. That means that more than 9 in 10 purchases are rung up in-person at POS stations attended by real people holding real products. If you’re a brand looking for somewhere to focus your efforts, it’s important to remember that most purchasing still takes place in the physical world.
Location intelligence now rivals digital intelligence
Digital technology is impacting storefronts and businesses can now track foot traffic every bit as well as they can online traffic. After all, where you go and what you do in the real world says more about who you are than anything else. Using beacons, geo-fencing, WiFi, RFID, Bluetooth and more, savvy retailers can tell who comes and goes, when they visit and what they buy (as well as what they don’t buy), then feed that data back into their marketing systems to influence what they do next. Location-aware solutions can provide even more powerful context-specific advertising than their online brethren: A coupon is much more impactful when you’re standing outside a burrito joint that you can smell, see, touch and, if the offer is appetizing, taste.
It deepens trust of online purchases
According to consulting firm A.T. Kearney, 55 percent of consumers would rather purchase from merchants with a physical store. Why? Because they want the security of knowing that they can walk into somewhere, return it, re-size it, or talk to a human being to get help. Even in the age of easy online returns, physical stores still convey a psychological advantage.
Physical showrooms boost sales
It’s true that smartphones have turned physical stores into showrooms for online purchases. Yet it’s a misconception that this hurts sales. Brands with an attractive online presence need not worry: For 85 percent of consumers, having a physical showroom where they can visit, poke around, and test gives them more buying confidence when they purchase from that merchant online. And according to Oxford University, there is evidence that touching items gives consumers a sense of ownership that may marginally boost conversions.
It’s the final stop in many buyers’ journeys
72 percent of young shoppers research products before ever stepping foot in a store, and two-thirds of in-store shoppers will check prices on their phone before buying. For retailers with a tight integration between online and offline shopping systems, brick-and-mortar becomes a persuasive final touchpoint.
Brick-and-mortar is still the foundation of commerce and it isn’t going away anytime soon. In fact, it may still be your biggest advantage. That’s why you need the right technology and location services to capitalize on it.
