Industry leaders to support study about brand websites, in-store buying behavior

WASHINGTON — The Food Marketing Institute and the Grocery Manufacturers Association on Wednesday announced their support for a research study about how consumers use brand websites and how the use of these websites impacts shoppers’ in-store buying behavior.

“Retailers are keenly aware of the number of sources that compete for a customer’s attention when it comes to grocery shopping,” stated Patrick Walsh, SVP industry relations, education and research at FMI. “This study will provide valuable insight about how best to reach shoppers with brand information and provide [shoppers] with the important information they seek.”

Accenture, comScore and dunnhumbyUSA will conduct the study to help consumer packaged goods marketers increase the value of their digital marketing expenditures. The results of the study will be available this spring, the associations announced.

The study will be based on an integrated panel of 1 million U.S. Internet users who have given comScore explicit permission to have their online behavior continuously measured and matched to dunnhumbyUSA’s in-store brand-buying data. This integrated panel will provide a single-source, privacy-protected data mart that contains each panelist’s online activities and his or her in-store buying behavior.