CHANTILLY, Va., March 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Nearly all consumers (97 percent) now use online media when researching products or services in their local area, according to BIA/Kelsey's (www.bia.com and www.kelseygroup.com) User View Wave VII, an ongoing consumer tracking study conducted with research partner ConStat. Among consumers surveyed, 90 percent use search engines, 48 percent use Internet Yellow Pages, 24 percent use vertical sites, and 42 percent use comparison shopping sites.

"The Internet has indeed become an integral part of consumers' local commercial activity," said Steve Marshall, director of research, BIA/Kelsey. "The data suggest we're at an inflection point where the balance of power in local shopping is shifting to online."

According to the study, on average, consumers are using 7.9 different media sources when shopping for products or services in their local area, up from 6.5 sources in 2009 and 5.8 in 2008, revealing a noteworthy increase in audience fragmentation. Additional findings include:

• 58 percent of respondents report using an online coupon when shopping for products or services in their local area in the past year.
• 19 percent of respondents report making an appointment online in the past six months for a service other than a restaurant reservation (e.g., business appointment, health-care appointment, auto service or personal service such as a beauty shop).

"The increase in audience fragmentation presents challenges for advertisers looking to connect with local consumers," said Peter Krasilovsky, vice president and program director, Marketplaces, BIA/Kelsey. "These challenges may be outweighed by the targeting opportunities available with tools like coupon promotions and appointment scheduling, the latter being among the best lead sources possible, since you know where people are actually going."

Marketplaces 2010 (www.kelseygroup.com/marketplaces2010), which takes place March 22-24 in San Diego, focuses on the fast-growing opportunities in local vertical services, media and advertising. The agenda features sessions that drill down into subjects directly related to User View findings, such as:

• Keynote by Andrew Mason, CEO, Groupon, a company that harnesses the power of "smart mobs" to bid on featured services in markets across the country.
• Pre-Conference: Critical Tools for Marketplace Success. During a special two-part pre-conference, attendees will learn about the latest developments in small-business marketing solutions, which now blend the best of digital and traditional options. Part I will cover online scheduling, promotions, live help acquisition/support, SMB video and classifieds. Part II will focus on vertical search.
• Local Retailers and the New Marketplaces. Local retailers have a variety of solutions to add to their Web sites, perform transactions, attract new customers and ultimately make money. A panel of cutting-edge retail enablers will discuss the new age of local retail.

Also keynoting Marketplaces 2010 are Jon Brod, executive vice president, AOL Ventures; Jay Herratti, chief executive officer, Citysearch; Sam Sebastian, director, Local & B2B Markets, Google; and Craig Smith, CEO, ServiceMagic. Conference sponsors include Acxiom, AgendiZe, Amdocs, Analog Analytics, ATG, AT&T Interactive, InSequent, Local.com, LocalAdXchange, Local Matters, Localeze, Marchex, MatchCraft, MojoPages, Moon Valley Software, Shooger, Text Link Ads, TurnHere, Universal Business Listing and U.S. Local News Network. Groupon is the promotions partner for Marketplaces. Association partners are Association of Directory Publishers (ADP), Great Outdoor Network (GON), International Classified Media Association (ICMA), Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) and Yellow Pages Association (YPA). Conference media partners are Advanced Interactive Media Group (AIM Group), NetNewsCheck, SanDiego.com and SignOnSanDiego.com. For more information, visit www.kelseygroup.com/marketplaces2010.  

About User View

User View is BIA/Kelsey's proprietary user behavior tracking study, which focuses on how U.S. consumers are evolving their use of traditional and online information sources to find and locate local serving businesses. BIA/Kelsey and research partner ConStat have conducted User View since 2003, surveying a nationally weighted sample of consumers via online survey. User View Wave VII was performed online in February 2010 among a sample of 1,002 consumers.

About BIA/Kelsey

BIA/Kelsey advises companies in the local media space through consulting and valuation services, research, Continuous Advisory Services, and conferences. Since 1983 BIA/Kelsey has been a resource to the media, mobile advertising, telecommunications, Yellow Pages and electronic directory markets, as well as to government agencies, law firms and investment companies looking to understand trends and revenue drivers. BIA/Kelsey's annual conferences draw executives from across industries seeking expert guidance on how companies are finding innovative ways to grow. Additional information is available at www.bia.com and www.kelseygroup.com. The company's blogs are located at http://blog.bia.com/bia/ and http://blog.kelseygroup.com/, and it can be found on Twitter through http://twitter.com/BIAKelsey.

SOURCE BIA/Kelsey