The ROPO effect allows the advertiser to calculate their overall return on investment (ROI) more precisely, by multiplying their online sales with the O2S-factor.
ROPO is often equated with Click and Collect, that is, the process of online reservation and subsequent pick-up of the product at the store.
According to a 2011 Google report 80 percent of all offline buyers research online, before they buy a product in a local store.
[1] Furthermore, in high item value industries ROPO already makes a significant share of total sales.
[2] Its opposite is showrooming: researching a product in a physical store before buying it online.