Experian’s poll of over 1,547 British consumers found that seven out of ten have shopped from home in the last 12 months (Source: Canvasse Opinion from Experian). Of those, 80% found the product they wanted in a catalogue and then went online to place their order. This signals a major new trend in what Experian calls ‘flick to click’ shopping.

Major factors fuelling the flick to click phenomenon are time-poor, cash-rich consumers using home shopping for convenience (63%) and to get access to high quality goods (37%). The biggest growth, according to analysis of Experian’s Club Canvasse database, is in home goods and furnishings, which grew by 509% in the past year and men’s fashion, which grew 347% over the same period.

For home shopping brands looking to encourage repeat purchases, follow up telephone calls are a major turn-off for 73% of consumers. Instead, customers would far prefer to receive a monthly or quarterly e-mail (59 per cent) on the brand’s latest offers or, alternatively, a monthly or quarterly communication through the post (60%).

Mark Peacock, Home Shopping Consultant at Experian Integrated Marketing, comments: “The days of brands using an ‘either/or’ communications strategy are well and truly over. It’s critical that companies blend their online and offline capabilities to achieve long-term growth. Having worked with some of the world’s largest brands to create ‘flick to click’ strategies, experience shows it’s all underpinned by customer data insight and being able to determine precisely how and when personal marketing campaigns are targeted at individual customers. Our research should act as a major wake-up call for brands still thinking about using integrated marketing techniques, simply because it works and consumers are embracing the mix of old and new media.”