5 Things Every Marketer

Should Know About The

Consumer Path to Purchase
What you will gain from this report
The path to purchase is the concept of how and
where people shop and the best way to reach
them. It’s important for marketers to understand their
consumer’s path to purchase, because it allows us
to engage them with the right message at the right
time to impact their decision process.
In today’s always on environment, where consumers
have access to information at all times through
smartphones, computers, and tablets, each person’s
path to purchase is complex and unique. This has
made it increasingly difficult for marketers to reach
target audiences. Do you know YOUR consumer’s
path to purchase? This report will highlight five things
every marketer should know about their
own shoppers.
What every marketer needs to know about
their shopper
The introduction of new devices, platforms, content
and all around new ways to engage consumers
has fundamentally changed the way consumers
build relationships with and become customers
of brands. In order to meaningfully engage with
consumers at moments when they are most
receptive to brand messaging, understanding the
consumer’s path to purchase has become a need
to know rather than a nice to know.
New technology means there are unlimited path
combinations consumers can take prior to ever
reaching the brand site in consideration. Search,
third party, review sites, social media, any or all
of these can impact and influence the consumer’s
purchase decision. The lack of visibility into these
sources can be alarming for marketers.
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Analyzing online consumer behavior allows
marketers to answer unlimited questions about their
consumer’s individual paths to purchase, the how
and where they shop, to reduce millions of possible
shopping variations down to a few key paths
to help focus marketing dollars. This report will
highlight the 5 things every marketer should know
about their shopper’s path to purchase.
1. Where did they begin their shopping process?
2. What resources did they use throughout the
research process?
3. What other types of websites are they engaging
with, outside of my category?
4. What brands are in their consideration set in the
beginning, middle and end of the process?
5. How intensely are they shopping prior to
purchase?
#1. Where did they begin the shopping process?
There are an unlimited number of ways consumers
can begin the shopping process. Did they search
for your product – was it a generic or branded
search? Did they start on a third party site and
compare products? Did they click on a link you
sent in an email campaign?
Knowing which type of site your shoppers started
on before they found you is key to aligning your
online marketing efforts. Below we see the majority
of converting consumers in this segment started
shopping on a third-party site while only 10% of
them searched. Where did your consumers first
start to shop for your product?

Share of converting consumers who began shopping process at each category

51%
Third Party

10% 32%
Non
68%
Branded
Search
Branded

39%
Branded

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#2: What resources did they use throughout the
research process?
Each person consumes information differently and
therefore uses different combinations of resources
during the shopping process. Some shoppers engage
with brand and product pages while others read
reviews and rely on social media. While each person’s
individual path is unique, there are similarities across
cohorts of consumers. Segmenting consumers based
on behavioral patterns helps pinpoint commonalities in
shopping patterns.
Do you have new moms, social media users,
comparison shoppers? Knowing how many
different paths exist and which ones are most
common allows marketers to spend dollars where
they will be most effective and efficient. Below we
see shoppers who take path 1 not only represent
29% of this brands total shopper base but also
engage with more resources than those in path 2.
Do you know what share of your shoppers use the
different resources available to them?

Example of Distinct Pathing Combinations for Two Segments of Customers of the Same Brand
Searched
competitor
site

Visited
product
Path 1: Visited
sites

review
sites

Visited
Visited competitor
brand site
site

29%
Path 2:
Visited
brand
site

Visited

17%
product
sites

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#3 What other types of websites are they engaging
with, outside of my category?
Smartphones, laptops and tablets have created an
“always on” environment where consumers are
constantly engaged. This means at any given
time during the shopping process consumers are
engaging with sites in and out of the purchase
category. Not all sites visited will impact or influence
the decision to buy, but it does pay to know where
else your consumers are spending time online.
Understanding what types of sites your consumers
visit during the shopping process helps inform
reach and frequency strategies. This allows us
to be more deliberate about where to place ads,
targeting consumers when they are most receptive
and already spending precious time. The image
below illustrates a consumer segment’s propensity
to visit different categories relative to the broader
Internet Browsing Population. Do you know what
types of sites your consumers spend time on?

Example of Consumer Segment and their Propensity to Visit Different Categories vs the IBP

Magazines Recreation
Entertainment Blogs
26% 3%

Sports
Music/Video Enthusiast
File Sharing reads reads up on
people.com cars, crafts,
6%
28%
sports, etc.

visits checks
Spotify.com score online

1.4x 3.8x
Online Theatre
1.4x 3.3x
Classes visits buys
Enthusiast
15% kaplan.edu tickets online
3%
1.5x 2.7x

visits 1.7x 2.6x

visits
reddit.com
Socially CNN.com News
digg.com
Generated 1.7x 2.5x 22%
News
24% 1.9x 2.3x
likes to learn visits
to play music dating sites
match.com
visits visits
Hobbies Groupon.com automobile Networking:
& Interests mag.com Dating &
3% Relationship
59%
Coupon & Automotive
Bargain Search Magazines
15% 3%

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#4: What brands are in my shoppers consideration
set in the beginning, middle and end of cycle?
The internet has created an environment where
consumers can cross-shop and comparison shop
easier than ever before. Third party, review and
aggregator sites are common in nearly every category
providing consumers a wealth of information to help
them make decisions. Wouldn’t it be great to know
how many brands are being considered and at
what point in the shopping process your brand fits?
The path to purchase allows us to determine
when individual brands come in and fall out of
the purchase funnel. Knowing this can help fuel
messaging and conquesting strategies. Below is
an example of shoppers for three different brands.
We see that Brand C had the most initial shoppers
but also the highest abandonment leading to the
fewest number of buyers. Do you know when you
are losing shoppers to the competition?

Brand Consideration Waterfall Chart – Where Brands Enter and Exit the Shopping Cycle

Brand A Brand B Brand C

Initial brand
consideration
54 62 67
Shoppers lost/gained
in the later stages -7 abandoned -11 abandoned -25 abandoned
+11 started looking +5 started looking +5 started looking

Total brand
consideration
65 65 72
Shoppers purchasing
the brand

13 19 13
Total consideration
conversion
20% 28% 18%

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#5 How intensely are they shopping prior
to purchase?
Studying how and where people shop helps identify
how and when to engage with our consumers.
Understanding how many visits to a particular
category occurred prior to the purchase event
exposes whether pre-purchase visits were evenly
distributed over time or grouped close to the date
of purchase. Identifying shopping patterns allows
marketers to time their messaging to coincide with
when consumers are researching.
Below we see that for a particular segment,
shopping intensity increases as the purchase date
approaches. This could mean messaging too early
will result in your brand being lost in the clutter or
messaging to late and your consumer may have
already made up his or her mind. Do you know
when your shoppers are most engaged with your
category and brand prior to purchase?

Number of Visits Made to Sites in the Category Prior to Purchase/Booking:

54%
7 visits
Distribution of visits by week and day prior to purchase

13
Number of total visits
made to category
prior to purchase
25%
19%
15%
3 visits

12%
1 visit
2 visits

8%
3% 3% 3% 3% 4% 5%
week 4 week 3 week 2 week 1 day 7 day 6 day 5 day 4 day 3 day 2 day 1 same day

week day

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Summary
The introduction of new technologies has made the combinations of how and where people shop almost
infinite, making shopping almost as individual as our DNA. As marketers we have the privilege of creating
great messaging and the desire to get it in front of our consumers when and where they are most receptive.
Understanding the path to purchase, segmenting consumers based on behavior allows us to begin to
see where we fit into the shopping cycle and how to move interactions with brands from good to great.
When you think about your consumers and how they shop, can you answer the questions posed here?

E
SAL

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About Kantar Media Compete
Kantar Media Compete is passionate about understanding consumers to inspire great marketing. Kantar
Media Compete helps the world’s top brands improve their marketing based on the online behavior of millions
of consumers. Leading advertisers, agencies and publishers rely on Kantar Media Compete’s products and
services to create engaging online experiences and highly profitable advertising campaigns. Kantar Media
Compete’s online panel-the largest in the industry-makes the web as ingrained in marketing as it is in people’s
lives. Kantar Media Compete is located in Boston, MA, with offices across the US, UK and France. For more
information, please visit http://www.compete.com/.

Learn more
For more information about Compete’s role in advancing the online marketing effectiveness
in online services, please contact:

Skip Streets David Kalil

Managing Director, Sales, Transportation Managing Director, Sales,
sstreets@compete.com Technology & Entertainment & Retail
949.388.8630 dkalil@compete.com
979.694.5318
Hassan Babajane
Managing Director, Sales, Agency & Publisher Solutions
hbabajane@compete.com
617.933.5724

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