Some retailers over-relying on Internet search, analyst says
Tuesday, 21 February 2006
As retailers deal with rising competition over Internet paid-search keywords, they need to rely less on search engine marketing and develop a more comprehensive, multi-channel strategy, says Aaron Kessler, senior research analyst who follows e-retailers for investment research firm Piper Jaffray & Co.
“Three years ago, Internet search was a good value for any retail category, but now it’s not always the value it was,” he says. “It’s a great marketing channel when it works, but many retailers have become too reliant on it.”
The key to successful search marketing, he and other experts say, is to find a way to fit it into a complete marketing strategy. “Our SEM effort has been very profitable because we manage it as part of an overall online advertising portfolio and because of our strong brand, which we build through multi-channel national advertising and in-store service,” says Sam Taylor, vice president of online stores and marketing for Best Buy Co. Inc., adding that Best Buy will aggressively expand its budget for search engine marketing this year, just as it did last year. Taylor is speaking at the Internet Retailer 2006 Conference in June in Chicago on the topic “Delivering Web Content That`s Focused on Customer Needs.”
Best Buy, No. 10 in the Internet Retailer Top 400 Guide to Retail Web Sites, also combines extensive research about how customers search and shop with new uses of marketing technology, including in-home visits to observe search habits, he adds.
Safa Rashtchy, Piper Jaffray’s managing director and senior Internet analyst, will speak at the Internet Retailer 2006 Conference on the topic “Wall Street Takes a Second Look at E-Retailing.”