Finding Product Information Online

According to a recent Pew report, many net users go online specifically for product information, are happy with the results and are even motivated to buy offline if the item is not for sale online. According to a recent report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 87% of US internet users say they are either "always" or "mostly" successful when they search online for news. In fact, 85% say they are either always or mostly able to find commerce information online.

In its report, "Counting on the Internet," Pew delves further into the idea of obtaining commerce information online and finds that 63% of internet users and non-users expect to find either more information about a product or the product itself on a store’s website. Pew bases these results on a survey conducted in September among 2,092 adults (1,318 of whom were internet users).

Pew also found that even if the store's website does not actually sell the featured product, nearly one-half (46%) of respondents said they would be more likely go to the store's brick-and-mortar outlet to buy the product, whereas just 6% said they would be less likely to do so.

Jupiter Research also determined that searching for product information online is a popular activity among US internet users. Jupiter surveyed 4,341 net users and reported in September 2002 that 63% said researching products and/or services was one of their main uses of the internet.

Source: The eMarketer