How 2008’s “Browsing” Consumers Prolonged the Holiday Retail Season
by Christina Lee on January 21st, 2009
As retail experts analyzed slumping holiday retail sales, they quickly placed part of the blame on the shorter shopping season, with five less days between Thanksgiving and Christmas than in 2007. However, as a recent study finds, 2008’s online consumers actually browsed more, prolonging the season for more than as seen in years.
According to Oneupweb, a search engine and marketing company, the week of Halloween, Oct. 27 to Nov. 2, became the biggest for sales and conversion rates of the holiday season – indicating that customers began shopping even earlier. Returns, gift cards and after-Christmas bargains then led to small rises, between Dec. 28 and Jan. 4.
The study also revealed that while year-to-year sales fell almost entirely throughout the season, traffic and conversions increased – indicating that consumers browsed the Internet more than ever for gifts.
“Think of it in terms of a brick-and-mortar store – consumers will go into a store to view the merchandise, perhaps several times before making a purchase,” the study said. “This means retailers need to have all merchandise ready and available for them to browse.”
With this, the company gave a few recommendations to keep in mind for 2009:
- Plan ahead and follow through. Though Oneupweb declared Halloween as the start to the holiday shopping season in 2007, it now recommends that retailers implement holiday campaigns and discounts on the first week of October, and plan for campaigns following Christmas as well.
- Compel shoppers to make immediate purchases. After all, imagine if that increased traffic had been converted to sales. Perhaps the best time to do this would be early in the season, as Oneupweb suggests. And to appeal to those last-minute shoppers, offer free shipping.
The company’s report, “The 2008 U.S. Online Shopping Report – What the 2008 Holiday Shopping Season Can Teach Us,” is available as a free download from their official Web site.
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January 22nd, 2009
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[...] How 2008’s “Browsing” Consumers Prolonged the Holiday Retail … [...]
How 2008’s “Browsing” Consumers Prolonged the Holiday Retail … | dairyfactory.com
January 22nd, 2009
at 11:21 am