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Consumers influenced by using the online channel

To help develop effective online services, we need to understand customers’ 

online buyer 

behaviour

 and motivation (this topic is considered in more depth in Chapter 9, p. 400).

Finding information about goods and services is a common online activity, as shown by 

Figure 4.2, but each organisation needs to capture data about online influence in the buy-

ing process for their own market. Managers also need to understand how different types of 

media, intermediary and influencer sites introduced in Chapter 2 influence consumers; for 

example, are blogs, social networks or traditional media sites more trusted?

There is also a wide variation in influence and type of information sought according to 

type of product, so it is important to assess the role of the web in supporting buying decisions 

for a particular market. Understanding the potential reach of a website and its role in influ-

encing purchase is clearly important in setting digital marketing budgets. Figure 4.3 shows 

the variation in number of information sources by sector and Figure 4.4 shows the impact of 

different forms of online purchase.