Ecommerce Websites and Severe Winter - Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow

Talk to your web host about how you can leverage your customers´ likes and dislikes.

While you are cheerfully humming a few bars of this winter classic, brick and mortar retailers are biting their frostbitten fingernails every time they watch the bitterly cold weather on the evening news. While warmer than average temperatures in the fall discouraged consumers from buying winter weather gear like coats and gloves, the severe winter weather which came later in key retail cities is keeping thousands of consumers at home and completely away from the mall cash registers.

Wet and cold weather certainly has an adverse effect on retail sales,” noted Michael Niemira, chief economist with the International Council of Shopping Centers. “Weather matters more at certain times of year than at others.”

As one retailer put it:   “When the Denver airport shuts down you know the weather problem is huge. I mean, people in Colorado are well-equipped to deal with the snow and there were still shutdowns. There’s no doubt that thousands of shoppers who would typically have spent big bucks in retail establishments were forced to stay home.” 

“We’re continuing to see retailers cite the weather for either making or breaking their sales numbers,” said George Whalin, an independent retail consultant. “In fact, many of the major retailers subscribe to weather consulting firms that give seasonal forecasts a year in advance. “

Ecommerce sites, on the other hand, are not at the mercy of the weather. In fact, bitterly cold winter weather is good for online sales. “We’ve noticed in the past that when weather is bad people ramp up their online shopping.” Said Helen Malani, spokeswoman for BizRate.com.  “Instead of driving on slippery snowy roads to get to Circuit City, consumers might go to circuitcity.com or they might even do a search on the item they want and spend their money on another web site that is offering a lower price.

Retailers who also have an online presence are often able to mitigate the weather-related financial downturns at their brick and more stores by offering consumers a chance to buy the same products online without venturing out into the bitter cold. Carrie Johnson, retail analyst for Forrester Research, said that online stores are “highly likely” to grab at least a part of any shift to online shopping caused by the weather. “I think consumers inevitably broaden their store search online vs. off line.”

For some people, online shopping is also a matter of security. During the holiday season, there were several “shopping rage” incidents reported, particularly among the large retailers. Holiday shopping rage resulted in a 911 call to police officers in San Hose at a CompUSA store when fights broke out among the hundreds of people who arrived before dawn and waited for hours in freezing cold weather.

Before you get too smug about your ability to attract customers when the weather is foul, bear in mind that there are plenty of other sites out there who are just as ready as you are to sell goods and services to consumers who would rather not tromp through ice and sludge to do their shopping. To rise above the crowd, you must do some homework. What exactly do customers want from online stores?

A recent AOL shopping poll listed the following as incentives for consumers to shop online.

• 58% said they shop online to save time
• 45% said they shop on online to avoid wintry weather
• 29% said they found gift items online that are not available in local stores
• 24% cited safety and security concerns related to dark parking lots and crowded malls

Just as you need to know the reasons why people like to shop online it is equally as important that you understand what turns them off about online shopping.
Some of their pet peeves include:

• Has a link that doesn’t work
• Is sometimes unavailable
• Has a typographical error
• Is rarely updated
• Is difficult to navigate
• Links to sites that are not credible

Talk to your web host about how you can leverage your customers’ likes and dislikes to make your site user friendly and profitable. Make sure your online store is functioning at peak performance. And remember that the same snow that is causing major financial headaches for brick and mortar stores is driving up your sales. Here’s to a long and snowy winter!