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Chicago, Illinois - (Cheap Web Hosting Directory) - January 5, 2007 - According to a new survey from multi-channel shopping services firm, ShopLocal, consumers who first visit retail web sites, are likely to shop more and spend more at their local stores.

The survey of 37,500 people underscores the prevalence of the Internet as a shopping research tool as 69 percent said they made an in-store purchase after gathering information on products via online advertising circulars compared with 27 percent who bought items over the Internet after viewing the online ads. The majority of respondents (56 percent) went to the online advertising circulars specifically to browse sales and discounts before purchasing and another 35 percent cited new specials piqued their interest. There was some variance from category to category with respondents indicating they glanced through the advertisements for less costly items, such as comparing groceries and beauty specials, but when it came to big-ticket items such as a consumer electronic product, people often used the online advertising circulars to research and compare specific items before visiting their local stores.

Bob Armour, Chief Marketing Officer for ShopLocal elaborated, ”The power of the Internet has improved the quality and quantity of today’s shopping experience, both for online purchasing and local in-store shopping. Online purchasing offers convenience but lacks the social aspects of in-store shopping, such as seeing, feeling and holding items and it offers the greatest satisfaction of walking away with something right away and having it in-hand.”

ShopLocal conducted the online survey from October 26 through December 5, 2006. The survey covered 32 retailers across five major categories: consumer electronics, food/beverage and health/beauty, home and garden, mass merchant and office supplies. Over 37,500 shoppers who went to the retailers’ web sites responded to the survey. In a press release distributed last month, ShopLocal also reported an 84% increase from last year in visits to online circulars on November 24th’s ”Black Friday,” one of the holiday season’s busiest shopping days, as consumers took advantage of finding online ads early in the day to help them pinpoint bargains available at local offline retailers.

Mr. Armour added, ”The conclusion to draw is that the Internet in general is becoming a mainstream source of information for consumers, and specifically, the online circular is becoming a must-have resource for shoppers and retailers. The more frequently shoppers use these circulars the more likely they are to visit a store in the near future.”

ShopLocal endeavors to offer consumers and retailers a comprehensive marketplace for multi-channel shopping and advertising. With ShopLocal.com (http://www.shoplocal.com) and The ShopLocal Network - made up of more than 200 affiliate media, search and shopping sites - consumers have access to what the companyu says, is the only source of information on millions of products from local stores side-by-side with online options. With ShopLocal’s SmartCircular, SmartCatalog, SmartMedia and MyStore services, retailers can distribute localized sales and promotional advertising, wherever their customers are on the web. ShopLocal is owned by Gannett Co, Inc, Tribune Company and The McClatchy Company who also invest in other joint ventures to provide consumers online products such as CareerBuilder.com, Cars.com and Apartments.com.

To learn more, please visit: www.shoplocal.com.

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