The Sale Starts Online Even When It Ends at Your Counter

Physical stores still pull in most of the money in retail. E-commerce was about 17% of US retail sales in the first quarter of 2026, which means more than 80 cents of every retail dollar is still spent in a store. That's the good news. The part that deserves your attention is what happens before the customer walks in, because the research is consistent on this: the sale starts online even when it ends at your counter.

Shoppers do the homework before they make the drive

Depending on which study you read, somewhere between 74% and 83% of consumers research online before buying in a store, and Deloitte pegged the share of in-store sales influenced by a digital device at 56%. The behavior is strongest for higher value, considered purchases, which describes most of what we sell in this industry. It would be rare for somebody to impulse buy a $4,000 e-bike, they read reviews, compare specs, and check who has one nearby.

The research also tells us exactly what shoppers are looking for when they do that homework. Among in-store shoppers who research online, 90% are checking price, 84% are reading ratings and reviews, and 60% are checking whether the item is in stock at the store. We wrote about that last number in Your Inventory Is Your Best Salesperson, and it's worth repeating: the most valuable thing your website does is answer the question a shopper is asking at 9pm before they decide whether to make the drive the next day.

Search is the front door to your store

Roughly 46% of Google searches have local intent, and the conversion from search to foot traffic is fast. Google's data shows 76% of people who run a "near me" search on their phone visit a business within a day, and about 28% of local searches turn into a purchase. There's a housekeeping side to this too, 62% of consumers say they'd avoid a business with incorrect information online, wrong hours or an old address is enough to lose the visit. We covered the practical setup, Google Business Profile, Merchant Center, and local listings, in Websites Make Shopping Easy.

One more number worth sitting with: 92% of shoppers research online while they're standing in a store. The phone comes in the door with them. Your staff has always competed with the internet on price and reviews, that's not new, but it does mean your online presence is part of the in-store experience whether you like it or not.

Can't the brand websites do the selling for us?

I hear a version of this question a lot, and I understand the appeal. The brands have bigger marketing budgets, better photography, and product pages you'll never outbuild. Why not let their websites carry the load?

Because the brand site answers "which product," not "which store." The store decision runs on local signals the brand site doesn't have: your stock, your price, your hours, your reviews. And there's a harder truth underneath. As more brands invest in direct to consumer sales, their website is competing with you for the same customer. The research on channel conflict shows the problem doesn't go away even when the brand prices at MSRP, you still lose every shopper who converts on the brand's domain instead of yours, and the customer data lands with the manufacturer either way. Your email list, your service history, your repeat business, that relationship is most of the value of your shop.

The old compromise, a "find a dealer" button with no inventory behind it, doesn't hold up either. Sending a consumer to a shop that may or may not have the product is a coin flip, and shoppers have learned not to take it.

There's a version of brand traffic that does work for retailers, and it's the one where your live inventory is wired in. That's the thinking behind Buy Local Now: if brands are going to invest in consumer traffic, that traffic should route to stocking local shops with one click, based on real availability. Millions of consumers start their shopping on brand websites rather than retailer websites, the goal is to be visible at that moment instead of absent from it.

What to do with all this

None of it requires winning at e-commerce. It requires being findable and believable at the research moment.

• Build & maintain a great website that showcases your store’s brand online, it’s the first thing consumers see. If you don’t have a strong brand, start to build it.

• Keep your inventory accurate in your POS. Everything downstream depends on it, and most shops have more cleanup to do here than they think.

• Get that inventory online with live availability, on your own site and synced to Google's free local listings.

• Claim and maintain your Google Business Profile. Hours, address, phone, photos. It's unglamorous work that directly decides whether you show up when someone nearby searches.

• Ask for reviews. They show up in 84% of shoppers' research whether you participate or not.
  Where your brands offer inventory integrated referral programs, opt in. Free qualified local traffic is rare, take it.

The technology in your web platform is only part of the equation, you've got to set up solid internal processes and train staff to keep inventory honest, and that's real work. There's a space between a perfect omnichannel operation and doing nothing, and most of the payoff sits at the near end of it. If you want help figuring out where to start, schedule a call with us, we love talking through this with retailers.

Sources

• US Census Bureau quarterly e-commerce share of retail sales, Q1 2026
• Klarna consumer survey on pre-store online research; 2019 UK/US shopper survey (74%)
• Deloitte Digital, digitally influenced in-store sales research
• PowerReviews, From Discovery to Purchase consumer research (price, reviews, and availability checking; in-store mobile research)
• Google / Think with Google local search data ("near me" visit rates, local intent share, purchase rates)
• BrightLocal consumer survey on incorrect business information
• Channel conflict research on direct to consumer programs and dealer networks