WSI Retail Buzz

Digitization, as defined by the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, refers to the act of converting data or images to digital form. From a marketing perspective, it’s simply converting or moving your offline marketing (physical) to online marketing (digital). 

As new technologies emerge, people embrace the change which translates into behavioural change. Today, people consume well over 50% of their media online. Interestingly enough:

•    Consumers spend more time online than TV
•    Consumers rely heavily on the internet to research their purchases
•    Less than half of researchers are committed to a brand before starting their search
•    The internet is equally important as family or friends in making a purchasing decision

Businesses have begun to react and become more digitized. Yet amazingly, on average, retail advertisers still only spend 20% of their marketing budget online.  Yikes .....

Email remains the most popular online activity for Canadians with Search and Social Networking second and third respectively. Search advertising continues to grow and dominates total online advertising with a 42% spending share. The internet continues to take a larger share of marketing budgets and is predicted to maintain double digit increases over the next several years. Are you shifting your ad spend to where the majority of your customers are hanging out? If not, you may not be communicating with the largest group of your target audience.

Digitization of media and local search optimization video.