Retailers with physical stores experience higher Web traffic, attract new customers and increase brand awareness in the market. According to ICSC study, “The Halo Effect: How Bricks Impact Clicks,” found that opening a physical store leads to a 37% average gain in overall traffic to a retailer’s website and increases its share of web traffic within that market by an average of 27%. The opposite is also true as web traffic tends to fall when stores close. Customers in markets where emerging retailers have stores tend to consider those brands 69% of the time, versus 51% in general. When and where stores exist, consumers tend to use them: 84% of shoppers either shop exclusively in store (53%) or in combination with online (31%)
Source: chainstoreage.com
Lightbulb Moment: This research supports other findings that indicate while consumers do love the ease of shopping online, there is irreplaceable value in having a physical store. Having both a brick and mortar and online presence together act to create a more three-dimensional relationship with consumers. It has a grounding effect which serves to garner consumer’s trust.