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Jingle All The Way

Ecommerce Holiday Shopping Extravaganza

This year’s ecommerce holiday shopping extravaganza is expected to soar to new heights, with some analysts projecting $24.3 billion in online sales, a full 22.1 percent increase over last year. A record 114 million internet users are expected to go online to purchase gifts, a six percent increase over last year.

And if that news isn’t enough to jingle your bells get a load of this: The shoppers who will be flocking to your online store are the cream of the demographic crop. Online buyers tend to be more affluent. The typical online shopper has an average income of $50,000 or more while brick and mortar shoppers generally have incomes below $50,000. In no other channel is there as great a difference favoring the higher income shoppers,” noted Jeffrey Grau, senior analyst for eMarketers.com

And these affluent shoppers will spend holiday bucks early and often. According to an October 2006 survey conducted by Shopzilla, online customers will be shopping later but they will be starting earlier. How sweet is that?

In 2005, Mondays were generally the busiest online shopping days between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, with revenues surging on November 28, December 12 and December 19. One reason shoppers were willing to keep shopping until later in the month is that many online retailers offered guaranteed delivery by Christmas Day.

On the down side, online retailers whose sites aren’t at peak technical performance will leave millions of dollars on the table this holiday season. A poor online performance leads consumers to not only abandon purchases but to eventually abandon the retailer. Surveys have shown that 87 percent of the people who shop online give up on a retailer after experiencing three unsuccessful attempts to make an online purchase. The frustration is just too great and nobody needs extra stress this time of year. Your customers are extremely busy. For some of them the whole point of shopping online is to save time so you have to make that happen for them or some other retailer will. Online shoppers have high expectations for their online experience and a low tolerance for downtime and inconsistencies. These shoppers are quick to assign blame for poor web performance to the retailer. It is essential to monitor your site and to constantly measure the percentage of shoppers who abandon their shopping carts and figure out why that is happening.

This is where your web host comes in. Talk with your host about the best holiday strategy for your ecommerce business. Your host can be a magnificent source of marketing information and tactics. Needless to say, every technical aspect of your site must be user-friendly, fast and working at peak performance. Check the copy on your site to ensure that it is well-written, compelling and easy to understand. Typographical errors and confusing syntax tell your customers that quality is not important to you.
 
Ecommerce sites should not overlook the obvious incentives like free gift wrapping, discounts for frequent shoppers and most of all free shipping. Eighty percent of online retailers offered free shipping at some point during the 2005 holiday season and nine out of ten shoppers said it was the most important incentive a retailer can provide.

Launch into hero mode and be ready to come to the rescue for last minute shoppers. For online stores, these last minute shoppers represent a potentially huge source of sales volume. Marketing to last minute holiday shoppers is really about fine-tuning seasonal marketing strategies. Base your marketing plan on personal experience. We’ve all done the last minute shopping thing and we know what is needed. There is not a lot of effort involved on the part of the online store and the payoff can be very lucrative.

Email communication should be ramped up during the holiday season from weekly to three times a week as Christmas Day approaches. Make sure the customer is comfortable receiving your email. Offer your regular customers increasingly tempting incentives. In 2005, more than 50 percent of online shoppers took advantage of an email offer during the holidays.

Brick and mortar stores may be closed on Christmas Day but that doesn’t mean people won’t shop online. Be ready for those customers who want to use the gift card they just received or the money that rich Uncle Larry gives them every Christmas. Last year, many online retailers were not prepared for the avalanche of traffic they received on Christmas Day. With careful planning and a great web host, this won’t happen to you.

No season is sweeter for online commerce. And nothing is more important than exceeding your customers’ expectations for their holiday shopping. The reward for you is money, lots of it. And that could make for a merry Christmas indeed.