Are Online Comparison Shoppers Influenced by Brand?
Do online shoppers ignore brand value when comparison shopping?
Dr. Usama Fayyad, chief data officer of Yahoo, was asked that question this week. And while he couldn’t cite Yahoo experience, he did have an answer.
The audience breaks down into two segments,” he said. “Some people are very focused on ‘get me the lowest price,’ and for those people there is very little sensitivity to a brand or retailer. But a huge segment prefers brands they know, and are willing to pay a fair premium, even though they go through the comparison exercise,
Switching to another subject, Fayyad was asked if he saw a difference in the traffic generated by wireless devices and regular browsers.
“The big difference is obvious,” he said. “With wireless, you have a limited device with a limited screen and slower bandwidth. People don’t have less patience for the pages to load.”
The solution would be to prioritize menu items for individuals. “If you have a menu of ten things, scrolling down to No. 8 is a painful experience,” he said. “But there would be value if you knew based on context and location that No. 8 should be No. 1.”
That can be done, he said, with a good customer profile.
Fayyad answered these questions during the National Center for Database Marketing Conference in Chicago.
