As we have reported before (click here, for example), even when consumers shop in a store, most U.S. Internet users use the Internet for pre-store shopping — especially to see what the best prices are.

eMarketer sums up the situation nicely:

“According to Salesforce and the Harris Poll, about eight in 10 U.S. Internet users surveyed in October 2015 compared prices digitally before making a purchase in a store. And online-only retailers are the No. 1 source of product research that ultimately leads to an in-store purchase: 56% of Internet users said they compared product prices on pure-play E-commerce sites before making a purchase in a store.”