Geek Wire — "Study of Seattle consumers shows how weather influences online shopping"
Geek Wire writes on the recent blog by RichRelevance’s Mariah Walton
One particularly bleak January day, while staring at my computer screen for what seemed the 17th hour on an incredibly tedious, time-consuming freelance project, I did what many would do — I turned to Zappos.
Two days later, more than $800 in Frye boots landed at my doorstep. It was then that I realized that I had a little problem: shopping online when I was bored and frustrated, especially when going outside did not seem that appealing.
I may not be alone. RichRelevance, a San Francisco-based firm that analyzes behavior and data for its retail clients like Wal-Mart and Target, asked the question: Does weather affect online shopping habits? And they turned to none other than our fair cloud-and-mist-covered city of Seattle to start digging around.
Mariah Walton of the RichRelevance analytics team spearheaded the experiment. Walton has studied climate change, and she was curious about how the environment affects our shopping habits.
“My original hypothesis was simple: Weather affects how and when people shop,” Walton writes on RichRelevance’s blog. “To extrapolate that even further, I’ll surmise that people habituated to rain, like Seattle natives, will abandon the digital world when it’s sunny and enjoy the great outdoors.”
