A recent study sponsored by iProspect and conducted by Jupiter Research has revealed that the greater majority of Internet users are researching products on general search engines rather than shopping-specific search engines (such as Froogle or Yahoo! Shopping).

The iProspect Post-Holiday Online Shopping Study reported that 62 percent of Internet users utilized search engines, but only 26 percent used shopping search engines for shopping research during the 2005 holiday season, proving that shopping-specific search engines are not as popular with Internet shoppers.

1,731 respondents to the study were asked which of the following sites did they use to research products that they bought either online or offline during the 2005 holiday season. Results were as follows:

Source: iProspect Post-Holiday Online Shopping Study, February 2006

The results reinforce the importance of having your products and websites easily found in search results on general search engines – on both branded and non-branded searches.

Interestingly, the study also revealed that 47% of Internet users that researched products online proceeded to purchase those products offline.

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