Image from: Athletic Footwear / Shutterstock

Our ever-changing and increasingly digitally-focused society has led to profound shifts in consumer shopping behavior as they navigate their individual paths to purchase. While shopping was once limited to store hours, the rise of ecommerce and mobile has allowed consumers to shop wherever and whenever they choose. Shopping now occurs on impulse from the convenience of consumers’ mobile devices. In some retail categories, the consumer path to purchase is incredibly short and traversed very quickly, offering marketers little opportunity to influence their target consumers.

In athletic footwear, for example, the consumer path to purchase is often as short as six minutes! With this narrow window of opportunity, brands and retailers need to clearly know when and where they can best leverage their influence in the consumer’s path to purchase.

As shown above, there are numerous purchase resources available to consumers and each are used to varying degrees depending on whether consumers tend to purchase in-store or online. When it comes to shopping online, consumers often move between retailer and manufacturer websites as they consider their purchase. For example, many consumers are prone to researching footwear on manufacturer websites because of the depth of product information, but prefer to purchase from online retailers because of the benefits of quick shipping, flexible return policies and the perception that retailers offer the best prices. In light of this, brands must balance acquiring traffic to their own properties and partnering with retailers to maximize their conversion opportunities in the category.

To learn more about how consumers shop for athletic footwear and how marketers can best align their resources toward engaging and influencing them, you can download the full report here.