BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE:   Business Week ebiz
DATA MINE Oct. 12, 1999 Being Seen on TV Doesn't Spark Net Sales It may be great for building brands, but TV doesn't do much to generate Internet sales. In a survey of 135,000 online buyers at 200 retail sites at the time of purchase, BizRate.com found that referrals from other Web sites prompted more than half of all sales. Other strong traffic drivers included word of mouth and previous experience with the merchant, either online or offline. Traditional media fared the worst, generating less than 20% of all orders, and the bulk of those came from the merchants' own catalogs and direct-mail campaigns. The most expensive advertising, TV and radio, delivered the fewest buyers -- a scant 3.3%. Referral from   Percent of orders Web   54.7% Print   15.1    catalog and direct mail 10.5%      other print 4.6   Television   2.1 Radio   1.2 Other   26.9    previous visits to Web site 9.0      experience with merchant    offline 4.2      word of mouth 6.5      other alternative sources 7.2       100.0% DATA: BizRate.com _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ BACK TO TOP					MORE NUGGETS The Mother Lode Collected nuggets from Data Mine