Irish Retailer McElhinneys Shines A Light On The ROPO Phenomenon

By Alan Coleman on 4 Jul 2014

If you can measure it, you can manage it. Digital Marketers detest data black spots. Our ability to measure customer activity is critical to understanding success & improving future performance. We have incredible visibility on an online purchase experience from first ad view, through multiple website visits to online purchase at our fingertips. The kind of visibility high street retailers can only dream about having for their in -store customers. We have data which tells us: how many people visited the store, which departments did they visit, how long did they spend looking at various products what’s the % of visitors who purchased for the various departments, what time of the day yield most revenue and much much more. However there is a digital marketing data gap that is more appropriately described as a black hole rather than a black spot. The biggest measurability issue digital marketers are faced with right now is the “research online purchase offline” (ROPO) phenomenon, ie when a consumer researches a purchase online, then completes the purchase offline. We currently have zero visibility on the in store impact of our online activity. The reason is an astronomical issue, as the vast majority of studies on the topic of “ROPO” indicate that retailers actually see more revenue in store than online as a result of their digital marketing efforts. Google One of Google’s key strengths is their ability to shine the light of measurement where previously there was darkness, and true to form they have just announced that offline conversions will be measurable online soon. We don’t know when or how, but one suspects this won’t be a “tick a box” innovation and will require a degree of EPOS integration, meaning it will be tricky to implement and won’t be readily available to all retailers from the get-go. McElhinneys

In the meantime, forward thinking Irish retailer McElhinney’s of Ballybofey, Co Donegal have conducted their own study in the effect of online research to instore sales and have uncovered telling results. The Study “We were under pressure to justify our online marketing spend. We knew what we were spending was having a positive impact on sales online, and we knew it was impacting instore, the need to get a precise measure prompted the study” explains marketing and e-commerce manager Roisin Woods. McElhinneys studied customers visits to, and purchases in, the occasionwear department over a 2 month period. The EPOS system had assisted sales functionality enabled and there was a degree of manual entry too. “Over the two month period, we found that 70% of customers who called to this section in-store had visited the website in advance and had specific outfits which they wanted to try on. This in turn resulted in less time spent in consultation as the buying decision was almost made before they came to the store, we experienced a 97% conversion which was signifigantly higher than customers who didn’t complete any research online. Customers who had researched occasion wear online were confident in their buying decision, felt they had their research complete, had consulted with family in advance and knew the outfit was within their budget.” comments Roisin Woods. The study found that: 18% of sales for occasion wear during this period took place online. 66% of sales took place in store following online research. 16% of sales took place in store with no prior online research. Suggesting that “research online purchase offline” was by far the strongest segment of consumer behaviour. In fact, for every €100 spent online there was €370 spent in store, after online research. “This makes a massive difference to our understanding of the true value of our online marketing efforts” asserts Woods before offering the following advice to multi-channel retailers, “It’s important to take a holistic view of the channels, people fall into the trap of seeing online in competition with offline. We’ve found rather than compete they influence each other and most purchases are being made by people who have experienced a number of channels on their journey to purchase.” While retailers wait to see how & when Google will allow them to measure offline sales online, McElhinneys have stolen a march on the industry and have adjusted their online strategy accordingly. “You are always looking for insights into how your customers are engaging with you, these findings have changed how we resource the website and allocate budget.“ McElhinneys will be representing Ireland in the European E-commerce Awards in Barcelona on June 16^th.