Search Behavior: Lucky No. 13

On the eve of the Search Engines Strategies conference in New York comes new research that shows that consumers who ultimately purchased a product online conducted some 13 searches before ever making the purchase.

The majority of searchers in the study who ultimately purchased began by searching broader terms. Yet most search advertisers still believe they should primarily buy product-specific terms to reach buyers. Instead, it shows that most people search for broad terms like "camera", "computer", and "MP3 player" when making their decision. This is the first study that debunks the "search funnel" thinking that search engines needed to support increasingly specific search terms.

This study suggests that mall management companies like General Growth and Westcor, who have featured store search on their mall sites, would satisfy more customers if they would add information on where to buy products, without having to add information on specific brands or product SKUs.

Link: Clickz Article