Retail - the new online media opportunity?

Went to a fascinating talk by Alex Marks of eBay this week.

As a massive online marketplace eBay is naturally interested to see what drives online shoppers. It seems that the drivers online are similar to those offline:

» familiarity with and trust of brands and retailers
» being hooked by offers
» being told about new things for sale
» being seduced by the idea of a treat

Interestingly, trust was often the most powerful reason that people chose a particular retailer, with selection next followed by value. (Looks like QVC should have called themselves QCV!)

Behaviour differed though, with different types of shopping. Where the products were purchased regularly or had a high emotional connection with the shopper, people tended to go to familiar and trusted retailers.

But for products which were purchased only infrequently or which were largely chosen through rational decision making there was far less brand loyalty; here search and comparison were important factors driving choice.

eBay is of course a massively familiar and generally well trusted brand. And it is also a place where you can buy advertising. But, as a retail site, is it a good place to buy advertising? After all people on retail sites are there to buy particular things, aren’t they? So they won’t take much notice of any advertising.

Well, that’s not necessarily true. A lot of behaviour on retail sites is fairly undirected browsing. People are in the mindset of buying on retail sites. But they are not necessarily looking for a particular item. They can be influenced quite easily to try different things.

Which is presumably why advertising on retail sites is so very effective. Indeed according to eBay’s research 61% of people take notice of advertising on retail sites, with 41% noticing it on search sites, 12% on portals and only 7% on social media sites.

And as big retailers like eBay know an enormous amount about their visitors – who they are, what items they have looked at, where they have started the buying process, what they have bought in the past (and when) – they are capable of providing advertisers with highly targeted campaigns.

Retail media (aka sales promotion) is a massive industry in the offline world, large enough to rival traditional media spend. It seems that eBay are leading the charge to make retail media equally significant in the online space.

Jeremy Swinfen Green
Digital Director
07855 341 589