Local Consumers Likely to Flex Multi-Channel Muscle During 2013 Holiday Shopping Season, According to BIA/Kelsey

CHANTILLY, Va., Oct. 23, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- As the 2013 holiday shopping season gets underway, a new consumer survey by BIA/Kelsey and research partner Ipsos offers insights into how local shoppers in the U.S. are likely to find, engage and transact with local-serving businesses. The first wave of the BIA/Kelsey Consumer Commerce Monitor™ (CCM) found 94 percent of the consumers surveyed have gone online for local shopping purposes within the last six months.

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Among those surveyed, 59.5 percent have completed a local purchase of merchandise or services online, within the last six months. At the same time, two-thirds of total local purchases (65.9 percent) are purchased in-person.

"Our first wave of the Consumer Commerce Monitor survey reveals local shoppers are using a wide range of traditional and digital channels to engage with local businesses," said Steve Marshall, director of research, BIA/Kelsey. "On Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday, we expect local consumers will leverage all the tools at their disposal—online, mobile, social, promotions, loyalty programs and more—as they search for that special gift and hunt for great deals."

BIA/Kelsey defines local shopping as "shopping for products or services locally (within a 25-mile radius of your primary residence)." The firm's definition of local products and services includes items such as groceries, restaurants, drugstore items, gasoline and other high-frequency purchases.

"We designed the CCM study as a complement to our flagship BIA/Kelsey Local Commerce Monitor, which has been tracking the advertising behaviors of small businesses for more than 14 years," said Marshall. "CCM asks consumers some of the same questions we ask small businesses in the LCM survey, giving us a more complete picture of the local commerce environment."

Other findings from the study reveal U.S. consumer usage of:

• Devices. When going online for local shopping (to purchase or research local merchandise or services), 60.0 percent of consumers use laptop computers, 57.1 percent use desktops, 37.1 percent use smartphones and 19.4 percent use tablets.
• Promotions and deals. About one-quarter (26.0 percent) of consumer local purchases in the last six months—in-person and online—were made through promotions or sales (such as discount deals, daily deals, coupons or similar discount offers).
• Loyalty programs. Consumers report that they're on a customer list (that includes contact information) of almost nine local businesses (8.8 on average).
• Mobile apps. Consumers who own a smartphone or tablet report using 3.4 mobile apps on average for local shopping "on a regular basis." These include apps like Yelp, OpenTable, ShopLocal and others.

Study findings will be made available for purchase in November. Email [email protected] to be notified when the study is available.

BIA/Kelsey will preview findings from Consumer Commerce Monitor during a free webinar on Wednesday, Nov. 6. Webinar details and online registration are available at https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/783487489.

Local commerce and shopping are among the key themes that will be explored throughout BIA/Kelsey's upcoming LEADING IN LOCAL: Interactive Local Media conference, Dec. 10-12, in San Francisco, particularly during these sessions:

• Keynote by Sean Smyth, SVP, Partnerships, Groupon
• Collaborative Consumption and Digital Word of Mouth
• The New Local Search
• Social-Local: Boosting Sales and Engagement
• Transaction Marketing: Adding Loyalty to the Local Mix

For more information about LEADING IN LOCAL: Interactive Local Media, including the complete agenda, speakers, sponsors and registration, visit http://www.biakelsey.com/LeadingInLocalSanFrancisco.         

About BIA/Kelsey Consumer Commerce Monitor™
BIA/Kelsey Consumer Commerce Monitor (CCM) is a proprietary tracking study focused on how U.S. consumers are evolving their use of traditional and online channels to find, engage and transact with local-serving businesses. The first wave of CCM was conducted in September 2013, with research partner Ipsos, via an online survey. The geographically diversified survey sample of 2,000 U.S. adults, aged 18 and over, is inherently balanced to reflect the U.S. adult population. The survey's overall margin of error is 2.2 percent. Nearly all of the questions are framed in terms of local shopping, which BIA/Kelsey defines in the survey as "shopping for products or services locally (within a 25-mile radius of your primary residence)." BIA/Kelsey's definition of local products and services includes items such as groceries, restaurants, drugstore items, gasoline and other high-frequency purchases.

About BIA/Kelsey
BIA/Kelsey advises companies in the local media space through consulting and valuation services, research and forecasts, Custom Advisory Services and conferences. Since 1983 BIA/Kelsey has been a resource to the media, mobile advertising, telecommunications, Yellow Pages and electronic directory markets, as well as to government agencies, law firms and investment companies looking to understand trends and revenue drivers. BIA/Kelsey's annual conferences draw executives from across industries seeking expert guidance on how companies are finding innovative ways to grow. Additional information is available at http://www.biakelsey.com, on the company's Local Media Watch blog, Twitter (http://twitter.com/BIAKelsey) and Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/biakelsey).

BIA/Kelsey Consumer Commerce Monitor and BIA/Kelsey Local Commerce Monitor are trademarks of BIA/Kelsey.

SOURCE BIA/Kelsey

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