The site is geo-targeted, so only location-relevant circulars will be shown to consumers.

Site visitors will be able to rotate through the different circulars on one screen, as well as browse and flip through them just like print versions. They will also be able to search for products across circulars, add items to a shopping list, find retailer locations with Bing Maps, and share offers with friends through Facebook, Twitter, and Windows Live.

The back-end data for the circulars comes from ShopLocal. As long as retailers update their info on ShopLocal, their circulars will be refreshed. If they’re not current, they won’t be shown.

Microsoft says it intends to leverage more of its assets (including mobile) as it evolves its circular offerings. Advertisers need to talk to their account execs if they want to take advantage of this kind of offering.

In June, the index reached 174 for the month (benchmarked at 100 for January 2006), and is based on 245 million page views from 20 million consumer visits to retailers Web sites. The index is designed to track the influence of the Internet on in-store shopping.

ShopLocal also released results from a shopper survey of visitors to online retailer circulars that revealed shoppers prefer to shop close to home. The majority (79%) said they prefer buying at their locals store while 21 percent said they favored making purchases online.

Consumer page views per visit to online retailers sites averaged 12.3 for the month of June. The food and drug category had the most growth with 47 percent more page views than last year. The home and garden category had the slowest growth with 17 percent for June.

"The ShopLocal Index was set up a year ago to track trends in the use of the Internet for in-store shopping. The results are clear and the Index strongly supports analyst forecasts of the rapidly growing use of the Internet for shopping in-store," said Vikram Sharma, CEO of ShopLocal.
 

First, a company called ShopLocal will convert local print ads into Internet-ready configurations.  The Yahoo Circular program will then show the ads to targeted sets of consumers.

 Yahoo-ShopLocal

Yahoo believes it can use its experience with 140 million monthly unique U.S. visitors to "help retailers speak to consumers on a level that is more personal and engaging by putting just the right products and marketing messages in front of an interested shopper at just the right time," according to Steven Feuling, a category development officer.  "The largest driver of in-store traffic for retailers has traditionally been the print circular, and the Yahoo! Circular program is designed to enhance that."

Seven-days-a-week, can’t-be-thrown-into-the-trash enhancement, compared to Sunday newspaper circulars.  (We’ll ignore the online issue of AdBlock.)  Although conversion stats have yet to be shared, this is likely to get businesses excited.

ShopLocal already works with Target, Best Buy, Home Depot, CVS, and Sears.  Yahoo’s proven itself more than capable of putting out press releases, so count on hearing about it if and when other companies are drawn in by the Circular program.

SES Chicago returns, and WebProNews is on hand to bring you reports and videos from the Windy City.  Enjoy our coverage this week.

FastCall411’s Richard Rosen pointed out that local search is frustrating for consumers, and an effective business model has yet to materialize.  Also, there often aren’t as many user-generated reviews of a given product or service as people would like to see.

Manish Patel of Where2GetIt suggested overcoming some of these obstacles by getting your name out there – make friends with ShopLocal, Shopzilla, ValueClick, and Pricegrabber, among others.  Answer basic questions, like when, where, and how to buy, and track your results and conversions.

NearbyNow’s Scott Dunlap pointed out that some people simply like shopping in malls – teens do it for the social experience – so you can use mobile methods to extend in-mall advertising.

Bob Armour of ShopLocal seemed to agree, saying that the Internet is being used more as a research tool than a buying tool, but the net’s influence on offline sales will continue to grow (causing almost half of all retail sales by 2011).
 
WebProNews Internet reporter/anchor Kara Ratliff contributed to this article.

ShopLocal Introduces Online Retail Index

The Index, updated monthly, is based on an average of 20 million monthly consumer visits to online store promotions that are featured on the sites of major U.S. retailers. The retail segments covered include computers, consumer electronics, office supplies, home improvement, department stores, mass merchants, grocery, drug and specialty stores.

ShopLocal found a strong link between shopper’s pre-purchase activity and in-store purchases.  A July 2007 ShopLocal survey of 23,600 shoppers online found that 65 percent made an in-store purchase within a week after visiting a site and another 23 percent within three weeks.

"ShopLocal has a unique vantage point for observing how the Internet is being used to influence in-store shopping," said Vikram Sharma, CEO of ShopLocal.

"The ShopLocal Index reflects that an increasing number of shoppers are using the Internet across a wide range of categories to decide what products to buy and where to buy them in their local stores.

The Internet’s influence on multi-channel shopping is growing, according to Forrester Research. The company projects that a quarter of all retail sales are impacted by the Web.

"Shoppers are increasingly turning to the Internet as a research tool prior to purchasing in-store," said Greg Sterling, founder of Sterling Intelligence. "The ShopLocal Index is a helpful new barometer and scorecard for online-influenced offline shopping."

Knight Ridder’s purchaser McClatchy picked up a cool $310 million as the trio of powerful newspaper publishers shuffled their shares in the three websites, according to a client email from Classified Intelligence.

Originally, Gannett, Tribune, and Knight Ridder each had equal ownership in CareerBuilder.com. Tribune and Gannett invoked terms of the original operating agreement when McClatchy signaled its intention to sell its shares in CareerBuilder as it was selling 12 Knight Ridder newspapers.

Gannett and Tribune now control 42.5 percent each of CareerBuilder and ShopLocal.com; McClatchy retained 15 percent. Gannett and Tribune each own 31.9 percent of Topix.net, while McClatchy has 11.25 percent.

McClatchy still owns 20 Knight Ridder newspapers, which already have affiliations with the three sites, the report said. The 12 papers owned by McClatchy will integrate the trio of websites as well.

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David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.

ShopLocal consists of a national website, http://www.ShopLocal.com and a nationwide network of co-branded ShopLocal websites, initially including more than 140 Gannett Co., Inc., Knight Ridder, Inc. and Tribune Company websites.

“ShopLocal.com and the ShopLocal network is the online resource for the millions of shoppers who use the Internet to gather information online but prefer to buy at a local store,” said Brian Hand, CrossMedia chief executive officer. “For retailers, ShopLocal is an extremely efficient way to reach local shoppers with targeted sales promotions.”

ShopLocal uses a zip-code search engine that allows users to find stores within a specific radius. Shoppers can search by product category, store or brand name. The site is updated daily to reflect current sales. It also allows consumers to create personal shopping lists online that they can print and bring to stores. In addition, consumers can set up e-mail sale alerts for key items and stores.

ShopLocal fills a gap that reflects a disconnect in how the Internet is used today: online purchases represent less than 5 percent of retail transactions,while the Internet influences more than $130 billion in consumer spending at stores. And with every $1 spent online, consumers are influenced by the web to spend another $6 offline.

“By offering online research for offline shopping, ShopLocal shortens the distance between consumers and retailers. Consumers now have a single source for up-to-date information before they go shopping. They will no longer need to go to separate Web sites for all the stores they want to visit,” said Hand.

Consumers have told ShopLocal that it’s important to them to find the best deal for everyday items like milk and diapers as well as big-ticket purchases like flat-screen televisions and appliances. Data from CrossMedia Services’ other web-to-store services shows that three out of four consumers who see a retailer’s promotion online go into a store to buy as a result of seeing that promotion.

“Retailers will reach — and pay for — only interested buyers,” said Hand. “Since ShopLocal is based on the same material retailers already use for sales circulars, catalogs, run-of-press ads and direct mail, we make it easy for them to take advantage of this audience.”

At launch, ShopLocal.com and the ShopLocal network will feature dozens of the nation’s leading retailers, including mass merchants, home improvement retailers, office products superstores, electronics retailers, home dicor stores, and department stores, as well as local grocery stores.”We will add retailers on a regular basis. In addition, over the coming months, we expect to announce additional network partners such as portals, online directories, and other newspaper publishers,” said Hand.

ShopLocal enables Gannett, Knight Ridder and Tribune to provide a new online shopping channel that promotes local sales and deals; deliver more value to local, regional and national retailers through online promotions of sales, product offerings and other store promotions; and provide consumers another valuable, local resource for “what’s on sale?” and other great values.

Gannett, Knight Ridder and Tribune acquired CrossMedia Services in May 2004 to extend their online retail solutions. The three media companies have partnered in other joint ventures to create CareerBuilder.com, Cars.com and Apartments.com.

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