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Does anyone have empirical data regarding the pattern in which a consumer shops for an item? I would like to find some information regarding whether consumers search for a product first then find a place that sells it or the opposite. I tend to see the organic SEO net focusing more upon company name visibility and not, say for example, the top ten products they sell. It is not always the case but I see with bigger and bigger companies that they seem to rely more heavily upon company name recognition. Any thoughts?

Are subdomains beneficial? I have a client with 4 stores. As it stands, they use one domain, www.mainpage.com/store1, www.mainpage.com/store2, etc. Are there any big benefits to making these subdomains like store1.mainpage.com, store2.mainpage.com?