Driving In-Store Traffic from Online

I’m at a ShopLocal client/partner event and right now there’s a panel happening called “360 degree view of local promotions on the Web.” On the panel are retailers (JCPenney, CompUSA), publishers (Tribune Interactive) and agencies (Starcomm, DoubleClick, Beyond Interactive, Centro).

Issues being discussed are:

• Local store tracking
• Allocation of budget between media
• Right media mix
• Organizational issues/culture
• Need for more research to quantify the Web2Store
• Efficacy of local search
• Continuing effectiveness of traditional media (or not)
• Audience segmentation and how that impacts media mix
• Effectiveness of online coupons (and as a tracking tool)

Online budgets generally were reported to be at 8% or overall marketing budgets or below. Panelists generally praised the performance of local search (without giving too many specifics). There was a discussion of internal cultural and organizational issues that may inhibit coordination between online and local store marketing efforts (separate ad budgets, P&L expectations).

The speaker from CompUSA made several interesting points:

When they’ve tested withdrawing all their print newspaper circular advertising they’d seen a marked decline in in-store traffic. He said that there were “phenomenal” increases in traffic to the website using “local search” (undefined) in Utah, Tennessee and Alaska and said it didn’t work well in other markets (he couldn’t explain, but it probably also reflects some organizational failures to track/measure).

The Tribune Interactive speaker added:

Print newspaper and online audiences (30% to 40%) are largely unduplicated.

Lots more interesting discussion that I can’t adequately capture.

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