A new study that explores the impact of the Internet on in-store purchasing reveals a shifting landscape of media influence on consumers: The web's power in shaping in-store sales is growing rapidly.

The CMO Council's Summer RetailFluency Report shows that more than half of the 322 post-purchase shoppers polled consulted the Internet before purchasing at an offline location. Half of this group reported spending 1-3 hours conducting their online research.

The exit poll, commissioned by Yahoo! and fielded in partnership with The ConsumerEdge Research Group, polled retail shoppers exiting BestBuy, CompUSA and Circuit City stores during Dads and Grads season in 2005.

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Shoppers were asked about the products they purchased, how their purchase was influenced by various information sources, how much time they spent researching their purchase on the Web, and whether or not their purchase decision was changed after they entered the store.

The study suggests that Internet research helps solidify brand awareness, increases product influence, and can drive in-store traffic. As a source of influence, brand reputation appears prominently in the mix for Internet researchers, while much less so for those who don't research on Web before they enter the store. This suggests that web research could reduce the chance of users being swayed to a different brand by in-store selling techniques.

Among the Key Findings:

-- In-store sales associates (49%), in-store demonstrations (36 %), family and friends (33%), newspapers (25%) and the Internet (21%) were the top five most influential information sources. Magazines, TV and radio were at the bottom of list, all with less than 5%.

-- Further analysis shows that newspapers -- the only traditional media channel figuring prominently in driving buyer behavior -- exert influence primarily via coupon offers, retail location listings and editorial reviews.

-- Of those purchasers who researched first on the Web, the top online influencers were the product/company website (47%), search listings (41%) and retail store sites (39%).

-- Differences between heavy (one to three hours usage) and light (one hour or less) Internet users show that heavy web users utilize more third-party online resources, such as chat, blogs and user sites. Banner ads also showed relatively high influence among heavy Web users.