"It’s clear that new Web technologies have put consumers in control," said Garrick Schmitt, vice president of user experience at Avenue A | Razorfish, in a statement.
User reviews still trail some other information-gathering methods, with search being the most notable. However, consumers do not have to do much research for well-known goods before heading to a Web site to make their purchases.
"Retailers with strong brand recognition probably get a higher percentage of their traffic from consumers who go directly to their Web sites," said Jeffrey Grau, eMarketer senior analyst.
A joint study by the e-tailing group, J.C. Williams Group and Start Sampling found that one-third of online buyers knew what they wanted and went directly to an online store online to buy it.
The research firms found that comparison-shopping sites (17%) and online reviews and ratings (15%) had gained some traction with online buyers.
The American Marketing Association’s “Mplanet” survey ranked the online resource that consumers were most likely to use first for product information in the 2006 holiday season in different retail categories.
About two-fifths of consumers turned to search engines first, and almost one-third visited company sites directly, regardless of product category. Online consumer reviews mattered most in complex and big-ticket categories such as automotive (19%) and electronics (17%).
