'Net Features : holiday shopping

Lessons Learned From this Holiday E-Season

Administrator — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 14:35:00 GMT

By: Mark Layton, Chief Executive Officer, PFSweb

The holiday shopping season is no longer relegated to in-store shopping on Black Friday; rather, it has snowballed into an entire weekend where consumers demand both mega-deals and convenience. Black Friday and Cyber Monday are the powerhouses in the retail world and can account for a significant percentage of a retailer or brand’s annual sales. In the last five years the percentage of holiday shopping that has taken place online versus in traditional brick-n-mortar retail has increased 10-fold. Further, this consumer preference paradigm shift has now given rise to another important shopping frenzy day - Green Monday - the Monday at least 10 days before Christmas. For some retailers, this is last day that standard ground shipping will assure that gifts will arrive by Christmas Eve. In 2012, Green Monday was the third heaviest shopping day of the holiday season with more than $1.2 billion in sales.

Because these few days are absolutely critical to an e-retailer’s financial success during the holiday shopping season, here are a few lessons we’ve learned that will help ensure that a retailer can both optimize sales and please their consumers throughout the season (and next).

1. Early planning and the use of a task force of experienced cross-functional team members are essential to a successful holiday season. While this point may seem to state the obvious, over and over again we see retailers and brands caught off guard from unexpected volumes of sales resulting from poorly coordinated promotional activities. Early planning and the use of a cross-functional team assigned the responsibility of ensuring that your organization is properly prepared for the holiday season is essential. Planning and preparation for logistics and traffic requirements, technology, coordinating promotional schedules, reviewing issues that arose the prior season and having the group charged with the responsibility to implement changes and enhancements to avoid similar issues again this year is essential in guaranteeing a successful experience.

2. Plan for a 100X volume spike? A common oversight is that the shopping behaviors of consumers over Cyber weekend combined with an aggressive and successful promotional campaign from the retailer or brand may result in site traffic and order volumes 50 times greater than any other day during the holiday season. Depending on the design of the promotional campaign, site traffic could very well end up concentrated into a very short time window (e.g. a flash event), resulting in the potential of a 100 times (or greater) load requirement on the technology footprint. Oftentimes we see planning determined based on averages for months, weeks or days, which can disguise the true peak requirements for resources during those critical time splits leaving a retailer hugely under-resourced at the most important success point(s) of the shopping season. The result can be a very poor consumer experience that tarnishes the retailers’ brand.

3. Consumers are increasingly expecting coordinated promotional activity across all channels. Nothing infuriates a consumer more than finding out the day after buying an item at a 25 percent discount that this same item is now on-sale at 75 percent off. It is critically important for retailers to coordinate their promotional campaigns to give consumers a “heads up” that a sale is coming and to ensure that the promotional discounts are consistent across channels. While it is acceptable to offer a “store only” or “online only” promotion, it’s not acceptable to offer 25 percent off through one channel and 75 percent off through another during a single period of time. Retailers who don’t coordinate these activities will experience a higher return volume and increased call center traffic from an audience of unhappy consumers who will find a way to get the best discount.

4. Recognize the growing importance of mobile and tablet interaction. The past year has seen a dramatic increase in the consumer use of smartphone and tablet devices to browse, compare prices and order products. This past Cyber weekend, our collective statistics showed that roughly 30 percent of all sessions and nearly 20 percent of all orders were conducted from a smartphone or tablet device. Sadly, many retailers and brands have yet to properly prioritize these user-interface platforms in a manner which allows consumers true ease of use and full-site functionality. Ultimately, consumers will embrace retailer and brand sites that make shopping on mobile devices easy.

5. Communicate promptly and candidly with consumers. Nothing is more frightening to a consumer than the unknown. Today’s world of identity theft, credit card fraud and mailbox and porch package theft has lead consumers uneasy about their e-commerce transactions, especially when communication about the transaction is delayed or unavailable. Consumers understand that delays due to high volumes or websites being temporarily unavailable are occasional inevitabilities, but the consumer expects prompt and candid information that they can rely upon to provide them the information necessary to protect their interests throughout the shopping transaction. Prompt order and shipment confirmation emails, accurate package tracking data, web site notification of potential delays due to weather or volume and clear and concise emails when issues do arise provide a consumer with the confidence that, while their order may not arrive exactly according to plan, the order is being handled correctly, and the revised delivery time frame is accurate.

As the 2012 holiday season comes to a close it is clear that online shopping will continue to be a key driver of total holiday revenue; retailers should stay focused on delivering consistent, high-quality experiences to their customers across all channels. Holiday commerce continues to evolve, as we’ve seen with the proliferation of mobile and tablet traffic, and retailers and eCommerce service providers need to be acutely aware of emerging trends in order to effectively service customers next year. Holiday planning for 2013 should begin now.

Holiday Checklist for Web Success

Administrator — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 19:25:00 GMT

Santa called, and he wanted to make sure you were ready for Black Friday and Cyber Monday this year. He decided to leave an early present for Web professionals, business owners and retailers everywhere.

As you may know, Santa’s a big fan of lists. In order to help out Website Magazine readers as they prepare for the rapidly approaching holiday shopping season, he left an informative checklist that you can all use to ensure your website and marketing campaigns are ready to go when consumers come knocking on your virtual doors. And, it just so happens his checklist follows Website Magazine's content channels.

Prepare for Customer Inquiries
The biggest difference for customers who decide to shop on the Web rather than in-store, is the lack of customer service. For example, a customer who is searching for a specific blue sweater in a brick-and-mortar store can easily ask a sales associate for assistance, however, this is not the case on the Web. Merchants can combat this problem by adding customer service solutions, such as live chat or virtual assistants, to their websites. These solutions not only provide consumers with a better shopping experience, but can also improve conversion and engagement rates. Learn more about bringing your company’s sales team to the ’Net here.

Advertise Everywhere
Nowadays, there are many avenues where brands can spend their advertising dollars on the ’Net, including within search, social and mobile channels. This is why marketers should analyze online advertising campaigns from holidays past to determine which campaigns generated the best return on investment. By doing this, marketers can also review which keywords from the 2011 holiday season sent the most and highest converting traffic. Once the best-performing keywords have been discovered, marketers should also add a few more for the 2012 season and then select which words will be added to their holiday-specific paid search campaigns. However, marketers should also consider spending their advertising dollars on social and mobile marketing as well. This is because a recent study from Marin Software reveals that many consumers turn to Facebook during their hunt for deals around Thanksgiving time. Furthermore, a separate study from the Interactive Advertising Bureau reveals that consumers are very likely to take an action, such as investigate a product or local business, once they have engaged with a mobile ad.

Be Mobile Ready
Mobile shopping has reached $20 billion in 2012, with that number set to grow with tablet shopping, according to Javelin Strategy & Research. The company's Strategy & Research EVP and Research Director, Mary Monahan, counts tablets as the ideal channel to transform PC-based online shoppers into mobile shoppers because of the large-screen real estate and mobile capabilities.

"Increasingly mobile devices like tablets are being used as shopping tools but the mobile buying experience is not keeping pace with consumer activity," said Monahan. "Apps engage consumers to make purchases. With the upcoming holidays, retailers must prepare for the mobile shopping trend or lose out on the opportunity to convert browsers into buyers.”

Companies like Usablenet, which are behind the mobile experiences of some of the world's top brands (Hilton, FedEx, Mercedes-Benz USA – to name a few) can help retailers create a mobile experience, quickly and at a low cost. The Usablenet platform requires no client IT resources, no systems integration and no Web development.

Create a Savvy Social Campaign
Retailers not leveraging social media’s prowess this holiday season – and in general – stand to lose out on revenue that is often unexpected. For brands looking to sell on Facebook, Website Magazine has compiled a how-to list of sorts, found here. However, Pinterest is the real standout network of the season. Its potential and popularity is in its simplicity. It takes very little to get started. Any retailer, of any size, can create a Holiday Gift Board. In turn, users will like and re-pin these products. And, the real beauty of Pinterest is that a retailer’s products aren’t only limited to who is following that brand and who, among their followers, is friends with. For the most part, Pinterest users view boards and pins outside of their network. Capitalizing on this free channel is a slam dunk this season. Additionally, retailers can integrate Pinterest with email, to see how, click here.

Engage with Email
One of the best ways to encourage audience engagement with your brand during the holiday season is with email. In fact, a recent study from Listrak and Harris Interactive reveals that 41 percent of Americans who receive emails from retailers have made a purchase in the past six months as a direct result of receiving the retailer’s email. This channel definitely shouldn’t be overlooked; instead, it should be in the forefront of your holiday marketing strategies. Holiday email campaigns should include frequent sending at optimal times and days of the week, as well as contain promotional offers and gift idea suggestions. Additionally, email can be a valuable tool for creating repeat customers during the holiday season. For example, after a consumer makes an online purchase, marketers can automatically send a follow-up email that thanks the consumer for their purchase and offers a coupon to bring the consumer back – either in stores, online or after the holidays.

Be Search Friendly
Consumers do a lot of searching during the holidays on their quest to find the perfect gift for someone special. In the online world, much of that searching is done through Google, whose search engine just happens to feature product listing ads, as well as a wholly re-imagined product search service called Google Shopping that essentially works as a separate retail-focused search engine. Prepare yourself by creating a product feed and linking it to AdWords. Your product rankings are based on four factors: data quality, bid management, quality score and enrollment in the Trusted Stores Program. So jam-pack product listings with as many extra attributes as you can, carefully organize your ad groups and set (accurate and appropriate) ad group level bids. Then, just write a promotional messaging, make sure your product listings have images and you’re off to the races. It’s far more effective than dressing up mannequins in a window.

Pick Up the Speed, Developmentally Speaking
The holiday season will inevitably bring about holiday traffic, and if your site isn’t adequately prepared, it could be costly. After all, most e-commerce sites are notorious for having slow site speeds to begin with, so you don’t want to be chasing away more customers (and losing more revenue) than you have to. In fact, optimizing your site and providing faster load times than your competitors will probably make you a more desirable destination for shoppers looking to research or purchase products online. You can use Google’s Page Speed Online website to quickly test the speed and performance of your website. But hurry, because there’s not a lot of time left; early bird holiday shoppers will be visiting your website before you know it, if they’re not already.

Tips, Stats for E-Commerce Holiday Season

Amberly Dressler — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 18:30:00 GMT

Much to most of our chagrin, retailers are already stocking the shelves with holiday décor. Although we haven’t hit October, brick-and-mortar stores are doing what they can to pinch more out of the holiday season. E-commerce sites can do the same.

To do so, it’s not only important to understand which products are most likely to be purchased online, but to also understand the current international online purchasing picture, for companies entertaining the idea of expansion. Pitney Bowes, a provider of business communication software, mailing systems and services, surveyed 4,000 consumers (in France, Germany, the U.K. and the U.S.) asking just that. Books, clothes, magazines, shoes and electronics hold the top-five slots globally, while health supplements, pet supplies, gardening products, Do-It-Yourself products and crafts ranked last of the preferred items for online purchase. The survey also looked at what these consumers purchased in the last year. Magazines counted for 55 percent, of the group's online purchases, books 52 percent, clothes 51 percent and so on.

It’s also important to note that the report, Consumer Trends in Online Shopping and Shipping, found that online purchases of every type of product are on the rise in the last 12 months. According to Goldman Sachs, e-commerce sales are predicted to reach $963 billion globally by 2013, with an annual growth rate of 19.4 percent.

“Consumers continue to delight in having clothes and electronics arrive at their doorstep,” said Craig Reed, Vice President Global E-commerce, Pitney Bowes. “Cross border e-commerce shopping and shipping solutions are expanding retail’s reach this year. It is critical to create a predictable seamless experience for each consumer from the online shopping cart to the moment they open the package at home.”

Additionally, the company offers the following tips for the e-commerce holiday season:

For the consumer in any country, the shopping cart experience must be seamless. E-commerce solutions now automatically calculate cross-border fees, end-to-end shipping and local taxes. They also filter out products that are prohibited from being sold in certain locales by import and export regulations.
Use a multi-channel approach for holiday campaigns. Direct mail, call centers, websites, live chat, texts, social media and email should all be leveraging the same customer data and communicating in a similar tone.
Pace your communications for a two-way conversation to build customer loyalty. Timing and acknowledging previous touch points build intimacy.
Make returns and customer service easy. Consumers will remember and return.
Measure your cross-border success as new technology solutions contribute to the emergence of this revenue-generating trend.

Report Gives Insight for the 2011 Holiday Season

Allison Howen — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 15:00:00 GMT

A new study gives insight into possible shopping habits for the 2011 holiday season.

The Online Consumer Report by RichRelevance analyzed customer viewing and shopping behavior on major U.S. retail sites. The study monitored more than 200 million shopping sessions and uncovered information about how many Americans are browsing and shopping online.

Since the National Retail Federation (NRF) reports that more than 37 percent of shoppers will do some holiday shopping before Halloween, these findings will give retailers insight about how consumer behavior may pan out this year.

Key findings from the report include a relatively unchanged online conversion rate between 2010 (2.1) and 2011 (2.13), a drop in overall online average order value — from $128.27 to $116.58, as well as different shopping behaviors based on how consumers arrive at retail sites.

Social Network Key Findings:

• Traffic from Facebook and Twitter to retail sites has grown, however these shoppers make up less than one percent of retail site traffic.

• Facebook has the most growth of any channel as a source of retail shopping, by increasing its contribution by 92 percent between August 2010 and August 2011.

• Shoppers that come to retail sites from Facebook and Twitter are less likely to make purchases, with conversion rates at 1.2 percent for Facebook and 0.5 percent for Twitter.

• Shoppers coming from social media sites that make purchases spend more per order than shoppers that come from Google ($100.16). Facebook shoppers average $102.59 and Twitter shoppers have the highest average at $121.33.

Search Engine Findings:

• Organic search engine traffic continues to be a primary traffic source. It drove 18 percent of traffic in August 2011.

• Google accounts for most of organic search traffic for major retailers, with 80.62 percent coming from Google firehose.

• Yahoo accounts for 9.67 percent of traffic for retailers; it has a conversion rate of 2.6 percent and has an average order value of $105.13.

• Bing accounts for 7.45 percent of traffic for retailers; it has a conversion rate of 2.4 percent and has an average order value of $104.62.

• AOL accounts for fewer than 2 percent of traffic for retailers; however it has the highest conversion rate at 2.9 percent and an average order value of $105.27.

Cyber Monday Prep: 10 Tips for Greater Sales

Mike Phillips — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 16:15:00 GMT

Put down the turkey sandwich and place the pumpkin pie back in the refrigerator. It's time to make sure your website is ready for the biggest online retail day of the year - Cyber Monday.

According to comScore, the 2010 holiday shopping season is going to be a good one. They found that for the first 21 days of the November - December 2010 shopping season, more than $9 billion has been spent online, a 13 percent increase over last year. That's great news. But it will mean nothing if you're not prepared for the windfall.

Testing will go a long way toward finding areas of your website that might need fixing, or snags in the transaction process. Below are 10 areas to test or double-check, to make sure you get your piece of the virtual holiday shopping pie.

Ad campaigns. Take a spin through all of your ad campaigns on every channel. Make sure they are all up-to-date with your latest promotions, that they reflect the latest in your holiday keyword research and that they are targeted to the right people.
Landing pages. In the frenzy of Cyber Monday, consumers will not have time to click everywhere on your site. You need to be ready to show them what they want. Make sure all landing pages are linked to the proper channel - an advertisement, search result, Facebook post, email, etc. If one of your ads promises free shipping, repeat that offer on the landing page immediately. If an email is promoting a watch, make sure the link is not pointed to a product page for a bracelet. Of course, make sure the "add to cart" and "checkout" buttons are prominent.
Shipping information. Consumers love free shipping, as well as free return shipping. However, it is not a necessity. Just make sure that your shipping information is readily available and easy to understand. Shipping charges should be included in the price before final checkout. If you do offer free or discounted shipping, make sure the offer is highly visible.
Return policies. Return policies are important, especially now while there is still time to receive an item then return it. Returns are of particular interest to a consumer when they pay for shipping - free return shipping is a major benefit so be sure to promote it. Make sure your return policy is available (linked with your shipping policies is ideal) and detailed.
Contact information. Are you available by phone? That's a big advantage for an online retailer, so let people know. Live chat has gained in popularity so if you have this feature, make sure it is promoted on every page of your site. If you can keep a consumer on-site when they have a question, you're way ahead of the game. Otherwise, offer at least an email address and be sure to inform the consumer when they can expect a response - of course, the sooner the better.
Discount codes. People shop online because they expect discounts. If you have them they must be highly visible. Also, make sure all discount codes are active and properly attributed to each product, your analytics and any affiliate promotions. Be very sure you can deliver on the promise of the discount - rates and inventory included - before releasing them to any social environment where they might go viral.
Affiliates are up-to-date. Make sure that all of your affiliates are aware of current promotions and that they have all the latest and necessary creatives, codes, links, etc. This is an excellent time to offer your best affiliates a little extra incentive in the form of temporary increased payouts.
Social media campaigns are ready. This could shape up to be the biggest social shopping season to date. Make sure social campaigns are active and that your social accounts are being monitored. Consumers will be using social channels to communicate with retailers this year, as well as with each other. Monitor your brand, industry and competitors.
Your shopping cart. What good is all this prep work if the consumer can't make a purchase? Don't make the cardinal sin of using a busted shopping cart. Make a few purchases using varied methods of payment.
Email. Make sure your email systems are running properly and that the messaging is optimized. For example, a consumer should receive an email immediately after purchase; thanking them for their business, offering contact information for any questions, presenting a cross-sell or up-sell opportunity, or the option of signing up for an email newsletter, preferred customer club, etc.

BONUS: This is an excellent time to make sure your host is ready for any spikes in traffic. Reach out and get a little peace of mind with assurances that load testing has been completed recently.

Once you have made a few sweeps of your website ask friends, family, employees and coworkers to search for your products or website and go through the steps to make a purchase. Send a promotional email to a few of these people and watch as they act on your call-to-action. If you can find people who are not familiar with your website, that's ideal. The closer you can get to a new customer, the better.

Smartphones Will Get a Workout from Holiday Shoppers

Linc Wonham — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 10:10:00 GMT

Nearly half of the consumers polled in an IDC survey said they will use their smartphones to compare prices while shopping this holiday season. Another 32 percent said they also plan on accessing online reviews from their mobile devices.

In a separate study, Yahoo! found that two-thirds of all mobile users intend to use their devices to influence holiday purchases. Finally, Luth Research determined in an October 2010 survey that 51 percent of consumers are more likely to buy from retailers that have a website optimized for mobile use.

In a holiday shopping season that is expected to generate $447 billion for U.S. retailers, IDC predicted that mobile devices will contribute in some way to an estimated $127 billion of that total. The predicted percentage of shoppers that will actually be making transactions on their smartphones remains low in comparison to those researching and comparing products prior to purchase, but the message for retailers could not be more clear – mobile commerce has arrived.

Retailers that have implemented strategies for mobile and social commerce such as website optimization, mobile apps, SMS advertising, user-generated reviews and comparison shopping sites will have a distinct advantage this holiday season. Others may want to consider realigning their 2011 strategies to better fit the trends taking place in social and mobile shopping.

Twitter Search Intrigue and Holiday Selling Tips

Mike Phillips — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 20:00:00 GMT

This week on Website Magazine Radio we address a very interesting Twitter search strategy to get indexed properly, found by Twitter searchers and get more clicks in the process. Also, we offer up several tips for the home stretch of online holiday selling. Get a better ROI using these holiday strategies.

Listen now, and subcribe to Website Magazine Radio in iTunes!

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If you would like to have your questions answered on Website Magazine Radio, please send email to mike@websitemagazine.com with "WM Radio" in the subject field.

Lower Your Shopping Cart Abandonment Rates

Linc Wonham — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 17:41:00 GMT

While many merchants are looking ahead to the official mid-November start of the holiday season, the decisions you make in the next 30 days may prove more valuable to the 2010 success of your e-commerce business.

In 2009, the stretch between Labor Day and November 15 was notoriously bleak as consumers curtailed their shopping until the earliest Thanksgiving promotions rolled out. Sales fell by 56 percent during that period while shopping cart abandonment climbed to a striking 83 percent, according to data from e-commerce solutions provider SeeWhy, which tracks conversions and abandonment rates.

All indications are that the trend is continuing this year, meaning that merchants must be more proactive as they head into the start of the holidays. The best way to do that is by examining the top reasons for cart abandonment and addressing them now before the season is upon us.

Below are the top five reasons why consumers abandon shopping carts during the online shopping experience, based on responses to a Forrester Research study released in May 2010:

1. Shipping and handling costs (44%)
2. Not ready to purchase the product (41%)
3. Wanted to compare prices on other sites (27%)
4. Item was priced too high (25%)
5. Wanted to save products in my cart for later consideration (24%)

Notice that none of the top five reasons have anything to do with site design or checkout functionality, and that several or all of these issues can be dealt with relatively simply. If you are not able to address them all before this holiday season, tackle the ones you can and make sure to consider the rest for 2011.

Here are some ways to address these issues:

• Offer free (or reduced) shipping. Simple, right? Only you know your company’s bottom line, but the numbers don’t lie – shipping fees are extremely important to consumers. “People are generally suspicious of high shipping costs, and merchants should really try to do everything they can to get those costs down as low as they can,” says Charles Nicholls, founder and CSO of SeeWhy.

If free shipping across the board is impossible, one strategy that works well is to offer conditional deals for lower shipping costs. Offer free or reduced shipping on purchases over a certain dollar amount, and let shoppers know when they are nearing that threshold to give them more incentive to make that final purchase.

• “Email me that”. The Forrester study tells us that four out of ten shoppers abandon their carts because they are simply not ready to make the purchase. So, help them get ready for the next time. Give them the option to get more information about a product sent to their email addresses or through other channels. While you’re at it, allow them to sign them up for your newsletter or qualify for a special promotion. Abandoned shopping carts do not have to result in lost customers if you can identify those shoppers and continue to market your products to them – especially when they are products in which they have already shown an interest.

• Use the data. More than half of the Forrester respondents are abandoning their carts either to check prices from other merchants or because they have already determined your price is too high. Analyze this information and try to do something with it. Like the previous suggestion, this will involve retargeting visitors that have left your site. Try to find out what kept them from completing their purchase, and take advantage of that information. Conversely, when customers tell you what products in your inventory are the hottest by buying them off the virtual shelves, the information you can learn from abandoned shopping carts can be every bit as valuable down the road if you collect it and use it creatively.

• Offer guest checkout. It did not make the Forrester top five (it was actually No. 7 with a 14% response), but many carts are abandoned because shoppers are often unwilling to register on a new site – even if they have found a product they want. Guest checkouts make creating accounts an optional part of the process and can significantly reduce shopping cart abandonment.

• Persistent Shopping Carts. These are carts that save a shopper’s inventory until they come back to visit your site, so they may browse your site without making a purchase but still have the items loaded in their cart when they return. If this is not a functionality that you have in your e-commerce store, it may be something to look into for 2011 because it has been proven to save abandoned sales. If you have this functionality and want to lower your abandonment rates before the holidays, look into the timing of your cart’s “persistence”. Particularly for holiday shoppers, you may want to ensure that someone browsing for items in the next 30 days can still find those items in their cart when they come back to your site on Dec. 21, meaning that you may have to increase the timing mechanism on this functionality for the next couple of months.

Like last year, 2010 holiday consumers are going to be more careful and cautious than in some years, so any reassurance you can provide along the way will result in a lower shopping cart abandonment rate.

Online Holiday Shoppers Already Revving Their Engines

Linc Wonham — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 14:00:00 GMT

E-commerce merchants who wait until November to launch their holiday promotions may miss out on as much as 65 percent of online consumers who have either begun their shopping already or plan to begin between now and October. Many retailers were caught off guard by last year’s early start to the season, and a survey conducted in May 2010 by Google and OTX indicates the same pattern will continue this year.

Twenty-one percent of U.S. Internet shoppers had already started making 2010 holiday purchases online by May, and another 14 percent reported that they would begin shopping by August. Twelve percent said they would start shopping online in September, followed by 18 percent who were going to begin in October. That makes a total of 65 percent as compared to the 35 percent of shoppers who reported that they would begin their online shopping in November or December.

The numbers continue the trend started last holiday season, which left many e-commerce merchants left out in the cold when November rolled around. According to comScore, online spending has exhibited quarterly growth of 10 and 9 percent respectively in the first half of 2010, indicating that this will be a stronger holiday season for retailers overall – but those who wait too long may miss out on some of the rewards.