WebProNews

ShopLocal, a multi-channel shopping and marketing firm has introduced The ShopLocal Index, a market indicator focused on tracking the influence of the Internet on in-store shopping.

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."