Hang In There Cyber Santa: The Shopping Season Isn’t Over Yet - Web Hosting Provider Explains

Poor Cyber Santa. On Christmas Day his feet are tired, his back aches from carrying all those bags of toys and he’s suffering from sleigh lag (sort of like jet lag) because of all the time zones he passed through in the last 24 hours. He’d like nothing better than to snuggle up on the couch with Mrs. Claus and sip hot chocolate while she gives him a much-needed shoulder massage. Ain’t gonna happen. Cyber Santa’s work is by no means done on Christmas Day. In fact, he’s not likely to get a breather for at least two more weeks.

According to the Nielsen/Net Ratings, on the day after Christmas in 2006, traffic to retail web sites included in the eShopping Holiday Index grew 35% year over year (from 20.9 million in 2005 to 28.1 million in 2006). The week ending December 31 also saw an uptick, growing six percent to 48.7 million. The holiday shopping index is comprised of more than 120 representative online retailers across 12 categories, and acts as a barometer to gauge the level of activity at online shopping destinations throughout the holiday season.

Shoppers go online to check out after Christmas sales, redeem gift cards, spend holiday cash and to sell or exchange unwanted presents. According to Keith Regan, a correspondent for Ecommerce Times, etailers must resist the temptation to slow down and revel in the unprecedented success of the 2006 online shopping season. “Many sites saw double digit growth, with more shoppers online than ever before.” But there is still money to made. Lots of it.  

“We have learned that the holiday shopping season begins much earlier and lasts much longer than it ever did historically,” said Melissa Payner, chief executive officer of BlueFly. “Many etailers slow down the week after Christmas and that is a mistake. The holiday season really extends into early January.”

When you think about it, this really is a win-win situation. Shoppers are armed with gift cards, cash and time on their hands and ecommerce sties need to unload inventory. Many will even begin their after-holiday shopping on Christmas Day. William Blinn, president of Blinn Communications, encourages etailers to take advantage of this trend. “Most brick and mortar stores are closed on Christmas Day and some are closed the day after,” said Blinn. “People want to be home with the families and store owners don’t want to be seen as ogres. Most people are home on Christmas Day and many will use their computers. A lot of people will place orders on Christmas Day if they can get a bargain.” Blinn suggests adding one-day-only specials for Christmas Day.  The Nielson group predicts that online shopping will soon take a place among the American holiday trends of eating and spending time with friends and family.

For some sites, Christmas Day sales are a given. In 2006, visits to the iTunes website were up a whopping 413 percent from Christmas Day in 2005. New iPod owners flocked to the web to download tunes.    

It’s up to your and your web host to make sure your site is ready for the after-holiday rush. When merchants do significant volumes of business online, in makes sense to invest in fulfillment, inventory control, point of sale and accounting to get the maximum efficiency. Be prepared to manager the overall selling experience and make sure you can execute without a single glitch.

So the bad news for Cyber Santa is that there is still much work to be done. But the good news (and it is very good news indeed) is that by executing well in the next two weeks the Jolly Old Elf will be dancing all the way to the bank. Merry Christmas to all!

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