Kelkoo: brand not price is top priority for online retail

A strong brand, the position in which an advertisement appears on screen and the amount of information provided in an ad matter far more to online shoppers looking for electronic and computer products than how much – or how little – something costs.

Only one in eight online shoppers is motivated solely by price, according to research from Cambridge University’s E-Society study. By contrast, a strong brand name can boost the number of visits to a product website by as much as 32 per cent.

The Cambridge University researchers worked with comparison shopping site Kelkoo.com to examine the 100 best-selling electronic and computer appliances every week for a year.

Kelkoo.com UK managing director Glen Drury says: “A lot of people thought the internet could never be brand-driven, but this research proves that the most important factor is still a strong brand. Price is relatively unimportant.”

Retailers that provide detailed product and other information online can see their traffic increase by as much as 21 per cent, compared with rivals that provide only basic listings details. Drury observes: “Provide all of the information you can – shipping costs, whether it’s in stock, guarantees. Having a good, information-packed listing draws people in.”

Those companies that make sure their sites are ranked as highly as possible by search engines such as Google will also see a significant benefit. The top slot on a shopping search engine can generate 40 per cent more leads than the second slot.