With the new school year quickly approaching, many consumers are beginning their back-to-school shopping trips, an annual event many small businesses take advantage of with price-saving incentives. But, according to PriceGrabber, an online shopping site, there are a few marketing techniques that consumers prefer more than others.
"Whether shopping in stores or online during the back-to-school season, consumers should leverage the multitude of money-saving tools and retailer incentives that are available," said Graham Jones, the general manager of PriceGrabber. "We can deduct from our survey that free shipping will be a huge deciding factor when consumers purchase online. Savvy shoppers will get the most of their money by searching for coupons and actively using comparison shopping websites to ensure they getting the best deal."
PriceGrabber's survey shows that 74 percent of consumers chose free shipping as the most effective retailer tactic to induce purchases. Sales came in second at 72 percent, with noticeable price cuts ranking in at third in the consumer survey with 66 percent of the votes.
While many businesses may be wondering how they're going to efficiently market these saving techniques, a new study by Triton Webcast Metrics shows that the popular internet radio platform Pandora has seen growth in its advertising revenues during the past month.
According to Triton, Pandora's cumulative audience in the 18-49 demographic went up by 6 percent in June 2012 with the strongest gains actually coming in the 25-54 demographic. In addition, the radio saw strong increases in nearly all the top 10 local radio markets.
It's clear that many advertisers are buying up space on Pandora to conduct their targeted internet marketing and with back-to-school shopping right around the corner, many small businesses and retailers may benefit from using this platform for their digital advertising endeavors and to promote their sales.