I recently was in the market for the infamous ‘little black dress.’ My first stop was Google - just like millions of other shoppers. After clicking through to one of my favorite dress retailers and browsing the options, I decided to stop by their store on the way home from work. I needed the dress for an event that weekend and also wasn’t sure on size, so ordering online really wasn’t an option.

There are lots of reasons shoppers research purchases online and then buy at a brick and mortar. What’s important for retailers to recognize, however, is that having an online presence is becoming more and more important to overall sales.

According to an Ipsos study, 93% of sales occur offline. However, 80% of consumers research a product online before purchasing in-store. This illustrates the value consumers place on the Internet as a trusted research resource for their purchases.

As consumers increasingly shop across multiple channels, retailers must shift their thinking around ROI to properly account for how and where consumers shop.

Google’s online to store experiments can help retailers better understand the impact their online marketing dollars are having on in-store sales. We use a test vs. control methodology to measure this impact.

The basics include looking at similar DMAs and increasing online advertising in the test markets, while maintaining or eliminating online advertising in the control markets.





In preliminary studies, advertisers are getting more insight into their in-store ROAS, as well as in-store sales uplift. Having this information can help you better align your attribution models - which can help you make more informed decisions when determining where marketing dollars should be spent to drive optimal sales.

If you have brick and mortar locations and are interested in learning more about the impact your AdWords advertising is having on in-store sales, please reach out to your Google account team regarding online-to-store testing.


Posted by Rachel Perrone, The Google Retail Team