Danny posted here about April Nielsen//NetRatings data reflecting that Google had crossed the 50% threshold in search market share. I want to point to another part of the release, which jumped out at me: the Internet driving people to local retailers (“big boxes” in this case).
All of the top five shopping queries according to Nielsen are ultimately local:
1. ?home depot?
2. ?walmart?
3. ?target?
4. ?sears?
5. ?best buy?
These are people who likely have done their research and are now looking for physical/local stores to buy what it is they want. This is striking because as much as the Internet is fueling the growth of e-commerce, it’s driving offline shopping behavior. While this may be somewhat ?counterintuitive? for many people, this is the dominant shopping paradigm for the foreseeable future: online shopping, offline buying.
I’ve written a bit more about this on my blog.