ZMOT and Online Retailing

Google recently published a free e-book title ZMOT Winning the Zero Moment of Truth. In the book, ZMOT is described as "the moment when you grab your laptop, mobile phone or some other wired device and start learning about a product or service you're thinking about trying or buying. Putting it simply, it includes the online research, product comparisions, price comparisons, use reviews, coupon code search, online shopping, store availability checks that all internet users are all so familiar with. ZMOT occurs before the traditional FMOT (first moment of truth) which tradtionally occurs when the potential customer encounters the product in the store shelf.

Online retailers have the additional advantage of combining the ZMOT and FMOT into an integrated shopping experience so that consumers are researching and "seeing" the products at the same time. Amazon.com website provides a good example in that product information, pictures, video, description, reviews, ratings, competitive products and price information are all presented together on one product page. Consumers now instantly have a large amount of information at their disposal for evaluating the product and making a decision. Amazon.com's one click purchase option also make buying on their site easier than any other purchasing method and also increases spur of the moment or impulse purchase through one single click. The disavantage of online retailers is the limited ways of enhancing the FMOT experience since shoppers cannot actually see and feel the product in their hand. This has hampered the growth of online retailing in certain product categories and services. At the same time, the increasing acceptance of online shopping and fact that online retailers have made returns easier, make it more likely that consumers will use ZMOT online experience to make their purchase decision and bypasss the traditional FMOT in the store. In this regard, Amazon.com is constantly enhancing their platform and have made it relatively easy for consumers to return products if it did not make consumers' expectation due to lack of FMOT experience.