By: E&P Staff The percentage of online buyers using the Web for local commercial searches is more than double what some experts thought, according to a new survey by The Kelsey Group and BizRate.com.
The survey, released earlier this week, analyzed the online buying habits of 5,582 Internet users. Of those, 25.1% said they were either seeking merchants "near home or work," researching a local purchase or actually buying a local product or service.
"We had calculated the number of local commercial searches at about 10% of all searches being conducted," Greg Sterling, director of The Kelsey Group's Digital Directories: Interactive Local Media Continuous Advisory Service, said in a statement.
The survey also showed that 64% of respondents said that search engines were the "main way" they find things on the Internet, commercial search results were rated as "good" or "excellent" by 80% of respondents, and 44% are performing more local commercial searches than one year ago. All the respondents said they had made at least one online purchase in the past year.
Ninety-three percent of the respondents were from the U.S. and were equally distributed around the country. Fifty-nine percent were female, and 41% were male.
Complete results of the survey will be presented by The Kelsey Group at a conference called "Drilling Down on Local Search: Drivers & Barriers to SME Adoption." The event, which will be held March 30-31 in Santa Clara, Calif., includes a keynote address by Hilary Schneider, president/CEO of Knight Ridder Digital.
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