Why 9 Out of 10 In-Store Sales Start Online, And What It Means for Your Shop

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Think about the last time you bought something significant — a piece of furniture, a new jacket, a gift for someone you care about. Chances are, you didn't just walk into the nearest shop and make a decision on the spot. You searched online first. You compared options, checked availability, read reviews, and shortlisted a few stores before you ever put on your coat.

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You are not unusual. According to Norstat's 2025 research, 91% of shoppers begin their purchase journey online, even when they fully intend to buy in a physical store. And yet, most brick-and-mortar retailers still operate as if this shift hasn't happened — with no real online presence, unclear stock information, and no way for customers to find them at the start of that journey.

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This gap between how customers shop and how most stores operate is the central problem of modern retail. And understanding it is the first step toward solving it.

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What is online-to-offline (O2O) commerce?
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Online-to-offline commerce, often shortened to O2O, describes the process by which a customer discovers or researches a product online and then completes their purchase in a physical store. It is the dominant shopping pattern in markets like Finland and across the Nordics, where consumers are digitally sophisticated but still strongly prefer to see, touch, and take home products rather than wait for delivery.

O2O is not the same as e-commerce. In e-commerce, the transaction happens entirely online and a parcel arrives at your door. In O2O, the online world acts as the entry point — the place where customers build their shortlist — and the physical store is where the final decision and purchase happen.

This distinction matters enormously for retailers. It means that being "findable" online is not just about selling online. It is about being visible at the moment a customer is deciding which store to visit.

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Why physical stores are losing customers they never even knew about

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Here is the uncomfortable truth: if your store is not visible online with accurate, up-to-date product and availability information, you are losing customers silently. They searched for what you sell, they did not find you (or found a competitor with clearer information), and they made their decision before ever knowing you existed.

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Research shows that 76% of shoppers want to confirm that an item is in stock before visiting a store. If they cannot get that confirmation from your website or product listing, they will simply go somewhere else — or buy online instead. The lost visit does not show up as a returned customer or a complaint. It just never happens.

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This is the invisible cost of being offline. It is not just about missing online sales. It is about missing the foot traffic that was already heading your way.

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The three stages of the modern retail journey
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To fully understand O2O, it helps to break the shopping journey into three stages that most customers go through today.

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Stage 1: Discovery and research (online)

A customer realises they need something — or wants something. They open a browser or a shopping app and start searching. They type in product names, compare prices, look at photos, read descriptions. At this stage, they are building a mental shortlist of where they might buy. Stores that are visible here, with accurate product information and real stock availability, make it onto the shortlist. Stores that are invisible do not.
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Stage 2: The decision (online-to-offline bridge)

Having done their research, the customer narrows down their options. This is the critical moment. They are not yet in a store — but they are about to choose one. At this stage, stock availability becomes the deciding factor. If your store shows that the item they want is in stock right now, they will choose you. If your availability is unclear, or if a competitor is more transparent, you lose the visit.
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Stage 3: The purchase (in-store)

The customer walks into the store they chose in Stage 2. They have already made up their mind. They arrive ready to buy, which is why in-store conversion rates are so much higher than online ones. The physical store is not just a point of sale — it is where trust is confirmed and the relationship is deepened.
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The entire job of O2O strategy is to make sure your store wins in Stage 2 so that Stage 3 happens in your shop, not someone else's.

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Why 90% of Nordic shoppers still buy in-store
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Despite the enormous growth of e-commerce, the vast majority of retail purchases in the Nordic countries still happen in physical stores. This is not because Nordic consumers are behind the times — quite the opposite. Nordic consumers are among the most digitally connected in the world. They use the internet extensively to research purchases. They compare options carefully. And then they go to a store.
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Why? Because buying in person offers things that online shopping cannot. You can try clothes on. You can feel the weight of a product. You can ask a question and get an immediate, knowledgeable answer. You can take the item home today. For categories like fashion, furniture, electronics, and specialty goods, the in-store experience remains genuinely superior.
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This means the opportunity for physical retailers is not shrinking — it is shifting. The battle for customers is no longer fought entirely in-store. It is fought online, in the research phase, before the customer has left home.

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What this means in practice: the shelf needs to go online
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If the research phase happens online and the purchase happens in-store, then the product information that drives research decisions — what you have, in what sizes, at what price, available right now — needs to be accessible online.

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This sounds simple, but it has historically been very hard to do well. Traditional e-commerce solutions solve the problem by creating a second, parallel business: a separate online inventory, a fulfillment operation, and a logistics setup. This works for pure-play online retailers, but for a physical store with a single inventory, running a full e-commerce operation in parallel is expensive, complicated, and creates the constant risk of showing products as available online when they have already been sold in-store.

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The smarter approach is to make your actual shelf visible online — in real time, with real availability — without creating a second operation. When customers can see that the exact item they want is in your store right now, they come to you. That is O2O commerce working as it should.

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Key takeaways for retailers

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• 91% of shoppers start their journey online, even when buying in-store. Being invisible online means being invisible at the start of most purchase decisions.
• 76% of shoppers want to confirm in-store availability before visiting. Real-time stock visibility is now a basic expectation, not a nice-to-have.
• The Nordic market is a particularly strong O2O market. High digital usage combined with a strong preference for in-store purchasing makes online visibility critical for physical retailers here.
• The goal is not to become an e-commerce business. The goal is to make your store findable and credible at the moment customers are choosing where to buy.
• Separate online inventories create complexity and errors. The most effective O2O approach connects your physical shelf directly to your online presence.

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The bottom line

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The shopping journey starts online. For most retailers, that is where customers are won or lost — before the store door ever opens. Understanding and acting on the O2O shift is no longer optional for physical retailers who want to grow. It is the foundation of competitive retail in the digital age.

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If you want to see how Vesko helps physical retailers become visible online — without the complexity of a traditional e-commerce setup — explore our Retail Operating System or start a free trial today.

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