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More Holiday Data: Sales Figures Continue to Impress

Posted in Ecommerce, Online Shopping, tagged , , , , , on December 9, 2010 | 1 Comment »

Everywhere you look it seems, more and more positive data is coming out about holiday spending and shopping here in 2010.

We’ve already done a few posts about the strong numbers many retailers and e-tailers are enjoying during the holiday season thus far and it appears that while the economy is still not where it should be, consumers are moving ahead and buying gifts at a rate not seen in quite a few years.

The latest round of data comes once again from comScore, which is reporting that consumers have spent more than $17.5 billion online already this holiday season.  That’s a 12 percent increase in spending during the same time period just a year ago.  And though sales have slowed some since the Thanksgiving holiday, comScore expects a pick-up again here in the middle of December.

Consumers have dropped close to $800 million online on four different days since the end of November, boosting the strong overall spending numbers.  Cyber Monday, which we already reported was the heaviest online spending day ever, is one of them.  But the day after Cyber Monday, November 30th, also posted strong sales numbers as well, totaling $911 million.

“We anticipated that the post-Cyber Monday period would experience a slight hangover after many of the retailers’ most aggressive deals and promotions expired, but we can expect to see activity begin to pick up again next week as we get into the middle part of December,” says Gian Fulgoni, comScore chairman.

What’s driving so many more consumers to the web for holiday shopping this year than ever before?  Two words: free shipping.

While free or discounted shipping has always been one of the clearest benefits to online shopping, it’s reaching what some might call epic proportions in 2010.  comScore says that more than half of every single online order placed since November 1 has included some type of free shipping incentive.  The week ending November 28 saw 55 percent of all orders include a free shipping incentive, a nearly 21 percent increase over the same week in 2009.  And that rate has stayed steady more recently, with 51.4 percent of all orders last week (through Sunday, December 5) shipping for free as well.

“Without a doubt, free shipping has become a critical driver of e-commerce purchasing, with the majority of consumers indicating that they will abandon their shopping carts if they get to check out and find that free shipping is not included,” Fulgoni says.  “Retailers have increasingly responded to this consumer demand, with market leaders Amazon and Wal-Mart, for example, both offering free shipping on virtually all transactions this season.”

And proof that shoppers are actively seeking out free shipping discounts and taking advantage of them: the average order value for transactions with free shipping included are about 30 percent higher right now than those without.

Leave us your comments!

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Neiman Marcus Unwraps New Mobile App for Holiday Shopping

Posted in Ecommerce, Online Shopping, Retail, tagged , , , , on October 21, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

Yesterday we covered a report from the National Retail Federation that outlined some expected trends this holiday shopping season, a survey that included data on the anticipated role mobile commerce will play as consumers shop in the coming weeks.

Well, if you’re an m-commerce fan who also happens to love Neiman Marcus, you’re in luck!

The department store chain has unveiled a new, full-service holiday gift app for iPhone and iTouch devices just in time for holiday shopping and from what we can tell, it appears to be pretty cool. Plus, Neiman has folded in a charitable component to the application’s introduction as well, which is something we always appreciate.

“We are delighted to be able to offer our customers the ability to do their holiday shopping anytime and anywhere,” says Gerald Barnes, president of Neiman Marcus Direct.

The app provides daily gift suggestions compiled by Neiman’s buying team and offers mobile shoppers exclusive free shipping and gift wrap options as well.

But what really caught our eye is the Surprise Me feature, which employs a mobile device’s accelerometer to provide users special gift ideas simply by shaking their phones.  You can literally shake your way through an infinite number of Neiman Marcus products wherever you may be-the office, on the bus, waiting for coffee, etc.

Of course, shaking can get old (and dizzying, depending on your balance) so the application also boasts most of the tools you’d come to expect from a standard mobile shopping app too.  Shoppers can browse products by choosing price ranges, including “Little Gems”, under $100, under $200, and under $300 of choose “Indulge” to be presented with items a bit higher on the price scale. Gifts can also be viewed by category such as For Him, For Her, For the Home or For Kids.

Regular Neiman Marcus shoppers can also use the application to log into their e-commerce accounts to access their personal shipping and billing information.

As for the charitable component, Neiman says that through Christmas, it will donate $1 to Big Brothers/Big Sisters for every application that is downloaded or until $30,000 in donations is reached.

All around, not too bad right? Leave us your thoughts and comments!

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More Consumers Shopping Online Regularly Each Week

Posted in Ecommerce, Merchant Tips, Online Shopping, tagged , , , , on August 30, 2010 | 2 Comments »

Just like anyone else, we love it when we’re right.  Ever since we published our first blog posting, we’ve been saying that online shopping is growing in popularity seemingly every day.  And every now and again, we come across a press release or a study of some sort that substantiates that claim with real data.  Today is one of those days.

The Compete quarterly Online Shopping Intelligence Study, which we have referenced before in our coverage, is out for Q2 2010, revealing the promising statistic that 83 percent of consumers are now shopping online weekly.

The study, an e-commerce industry research report that delves into the behaviors and trends by online shoppers, also shows that a number of other habits are starting to develop on the part of online shoppers as we move towards the end of the year and closer to the holiday shopping season.  Data was compiled based on more than 3,100 online purchases between May and July of this year.

“As retailers look toward the rapidly approaching holidays, they should prepare for an uptick in spending — over half of all respondents said that compared to last year, they will be spending as much or more this holiday season,” said Debra Arbesman of Compete.  “Retailers should be mindful of these promising findings to create strategies that will better engage shoppers.”

Two things in particular stand out from this quarter’s results.  One, which echoes another trend we’ve been touting seemingly forever, is that social media integration is definitely having tangible effects on online shopping, as 31 percent of respondents reported checking out retail fan pages on Facebook or feeds on Twitter.  That’s almost twice the number who reported doing so in the third quarter of last year.

Secondly, the data shows that consumers will be targeting entertainment items the most over the next six months, including movies, music, video games, e-media and books.  Apparel was the second most sought after category.

While the overall strong majority of people shopping regularly is certainly good news, there does, however, remain a bit of a disconnect between researching items online and actually following through and purchasing them on the web.  For instance, 44 percent of those polled said that while they research electronics online, they ultimately opt to buy the items in a traditional brick and mortar storefront instead. The same was true for 30 percent of those who responded when it came to kitchen items and 28 percent each for media items and furniture.

Shipping costs (62 percent) were cited as the leading reason why respondents opt to buy in a store rather than online.

With the holidays fast approaching, retailers should certainly take the data in this report to heart. In particular, offer free or heavily-discounted shipping to convert more of those consumers researching items online into actual online sales.  Allowing shoppers to use coupons is another great way to ensure that they buy directly from you rather than going to a store. And if you’re a merchant specializing in entertainment items like the ones listed as the most sought-after, make sure your inventory is stocked up and ready to go well in advance of November.

As always, we welcome your thoughts and ideas!

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Target.com Brings Black Friday to Late July

Posted in Ecommerce, Online Shopping, tagged , , , , , , on July 20, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

We’ve touted the benefit of starting your holiday shopping as early as possible quite a few times here at Junkie.  Particularly this year, with unemployment high and quite a bit of uncertainty surrounding the country’s economy, consumers everywhere should be looking for deals for the holidays early and often.

And now, there’s one very well known retailer prepared to give you Black Friday-type deals well in advance of the busiest shopping day of the year.

Target has just announced that it will be holding an online-only, one day sale this Friday where shoppers can cash in on deals that they normally only see during the holiday shopping season.

Part of Target.com’s Daily Deals series, the first ever “Back-in-Black-Friday” sale will commence at 12:00 a.m. PDT and run for 24 hours.  Shoppers who visit www.target.com/blackFriday during that time will find bargains on hundreds of items, giving them the opportunity to start their holiday shopping in July, or simply stock up on some things for themselves.

“At Target.com, we are committed to offering our guests tremendous value every day.  With our first-ever Back in Black Friday, guests will find incredible bargains before the holiday season with the added convenience of online shopping,” said Steve Eastman, president of Target.com.

Don’t head over to Target store locations looking for this sale.  It’s only going to be available online, with an average of 40 percent off regular prices on more than 500 products across a wide range of categories.

In particular, shoppers will be able to find deep discounts on bedding and clothing in the Liberty of London line from Target, as well as select electronics items such as a Philips Blu-Ray player or Aiptek Digital Camcorder.  Books, house wares and home entertainment items will also be marked down. Consumers should log on early though, as many of these sale items are available only in limited quantities and are likely to move fast.

We expect this to be the start of quite a few Christmas in Summer-type promotions coming out from retailers in the coming weeks, as the race to grab the holiday shopping attention of consumers begins. For shoppers, obviously this is a great opportunity to knock off some of your holiday shopping now to save yourself the stress later.

But for other retailers and merchants, you should be using this as a wake up call to get your holiday shopping ducks in a row, if you have not already done so.  Leave us your thoughts and comments and definitely let us know if you plan on partaking in Target’s sale on Friday!

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Retailers Counting on a Big Back to School Season May Want to Think Again

Posted in Ecommerce, Merchant Tips, Online Shopping, tagged , , , on June 23, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

While the four to five week time period post-Thanksgiving and into December will likely always be the most critical time of year for retailers, the back-to-school shopping season isn’t far off in terms of importance.

In fact, in some ways back-to-school shoppers can have an even larger impact on a retailers’ bottom line than they do during the holidays.  A good back-to-school season leaves a merchant with a little more wiggle room for holiday shopping a few months later, while a poor early autumn can leave a retailer scrambling to try to make up the difference once the holidays roll around.

Many merchants, both brick and mortar and their online counterparts, are already thinking about back-to-school shopping even though the calendar has yet to turn to July.

And according to a new PriceGrabber.com forecast, that’s a smart move, because shoppers seem intent on stretching their back-to-school dollars as much as possible as the economy continues to alter traditional spending habits.

The survey of 1,718 online shoppers conducted between May 12 and June 1 provides some good insight that merchants should capitalize on and employ for their back-to-school shopping strategies.

Most glaring among the results is that only 14 percent of those polled plan to spend more this back-to-school season than they did in 2009.  Conversely, 45 percent will spend the same amount as last year and 41 percent plan to spend less.

Furthermore, a majority of respondents (64 percent) haven’t saved a dime for the back-to-school season and have no plans to do so.   Less than one in five shoppers started saving for the school buying rush prior to April and only 17 percent started saving sometime between April and now.

As such, those merchants who are anticipating a rush of consumer spending on school supplies, clothing and electronics for September are likely in for a big surprise.

What is likely to unfold instead is a gradual and prolonged search for back-to-school items by shoppers; 49 percent of respondents will be spreading their purchases out over time to better cope with the costs.  About one-quarter of the survey participants (26 percent) planned to make purchases for back-to-school prior to July, while 31 and 38 percent anticipate starting the shopping process in July and August respectively.

“We are not surprised to see this new, optimistic trend of consumer frugality extend to back-to-school shopping,” says Laura Conrad, president of PriceGrabber.com.  “Further analysis of the data supports the idea that consumers are trying to absorb back-to-school spending in their monthly budgets by starting their shopping early to distribute their purchases.”

So there you have it.   The moral of today’s blog is not to wait until later this summer to get going on back-to-school.  If you’re a retailer, you should already be working on your promotions, offerings, and sales because, obviously, the shoppers are ready to buy right now and will continue looking all summer.

Leave us your reactions and ideas in the comment section below!

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Merchant Tips: Prepping for Cyber Monday

Posted in Merchant Tips, tagged , , , , on November 17, 2009 | 1 Comment »

If you’re an online retailer, no doubt you know just how vital Cyber Monday is in the big picture of holiday shopping and your overall annual success. Online shopping is as popular as ever, with more and more people turning to the web to find deals and avoid the hassle of shopping in stores once the holidays roll around.  As such, it’s a huge priority to have everything running smoothly in plenty of time for Cyber Monday, and ideally, even a week or so before.

We spoke to a leading e-commerce industry expert to get his take on what merchants can do to best position themselves for Cyber Monday.  Here’s what he recommended:

Optimize, Optimize, Optimize!
The holiday shopping season is the least ideal time to have glitches with your technology popping up.  Studies show that slow waits and long page loads on shopping websites are akin to forcing consumers to wait on line in the mall, only when they’re on the web they can easily leave and find another site. Don’t let that happen. Make sure your site is prepared to deal with an increase in traffic by running some internal tests prior to Cyber Monday, and upgrade your capabilities to allow for faster browsing if necessary.

Beef Up Security
The biggest concern consumers have when it comes to online shopping is overwhelmingly security.  Some people simply don’t like putting their financial and other personal information out there on the web, and you can’t really blame them.  So in this case, it’s not enough to just HAVE a secure shopping platform.  You need to make every visitor who arrives at your page fully aware that their transactions will be safe and secure.  Put a seal on your homepage indicating as much and make it as visible as possible.  Chances are, shoppers will arrive at your site, see such a notification, and feel a lot better about buying through you.

Integrate
Social media networks like Facebook and Twitter have opened up incredible new opportunities for retailers to reach potential customers, and if you’re not actively involved, you’re missing out.  One example is the merchant store application offered by Sortprice.com, which lets you open a virtual storefront for your items right on your Facebook page.  There are plenty of ways to build a community of fans and friends with social media and during the holiday season, you can be certain almost all of them will be shopping for gifts, so keep them up-to-date on any sales or announcements you may have.

Advertise
Advertising is almost a must for retailers this time of year.  But be smart about where you divert your advertising dollars and make sure that you’re advertising a message that matters, like a big sale or special promotion.  If you’re going to advertise exclusively online, find a package deal with a reputable web advertising broker that will put your name out there across as many sites and portals as possible.  Stay away from ad campaigns that are ‘pay-per-click’ to avoid any possibility of click fraud.  For more traditional advertising, many local and regional newspapers will run holiday shopping guides for readers shortly after Thanksgiving. Run and ad and get listed in these guides now and your name will stick with consumers year-round. Most of all, get creative and find advertising options that maximize your investment.

Promote
Sometimes gaining separation from your competitors isn’t simply a matter of having the lowest price.  It’s what you offer in addition to great prices. The most popular holiday shopping promotion is free shipping, or discounted shipping on orders of a certain size.  Shoppers love this idea and for some, it’s the top reason why many of them are shopping online in the first place. But you don’t have to stop there.  Offer coupons on select items, or use some of those social media tools we discussed to give exclusive or “Facebook” discounts.  If you’ve got a customer email list, offer them something special for their loyalty.  Try a “Tell a Friend” promotion, which gives incentives to both the new customer and the existing one that referred them to you.  If you engage your customer base with fresh promotional ideas that are broadly communicated to them, you’ll motivate them to stick with you not only now, but in the future as well.

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Merchant Tips: Prepping for the Holiday Shopping Season

Posted in Ecommerce, tagged , , , , , , , on August 18, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

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It’s may be difficult to think about snow and mistletoe when the dog days of summer are still here but if you’re an online retailer, preparation is everything and now is the time to be readying yourself for the holiday shopping season in a few months.

Retail sales are still lagging some, but many experts believe more people than ever will shop online for the holidays in 2009, which is even more of a reason to solidify your marketing and sales decisions in advance of the most important time of the year. We’ve compiled a few tips that every online retailer can use to put themselves in the best position to succeed when the weather does turn cooler.

–Organize: first and foremost, take a look at where you’re at. Analyze what worked and what didn’t work in previous holiday shopping seasons. Where can you improve? Should you consider advertising this season? Are there effective marketing initiatives from the past that should be built upon? Be honest and objective and build a realistic plan of attack.

–Get your site ready: technical issues and/or a website crash in the days and weeks after Thanksgiving are akin to retail suicide. Make sure your site and accompanying technology is humming along well, capable of handling lots of visitors and processing multiple orders at a time. If you’ve had concerns about the platform you’re operating on, maybe now’s the time to upgrade. Aesthetically your site should be well organized and laid out, with easy access not only to products, but to customer support and help features.

–Branch out: there are plenty of ways to increase your online presence for little or no money, particularly in the social networking arena. One example would be Sortprice.com’s Merchant Store application on Facebook. If you’re a Sortprice merchant, you can build a store for your products right on your Facebook profile FOR FREE.  Tap into additional audiences by starting a Twitter feed or a Myspace page. The more people that know about you, the better!

–Consider your promotions: what promotions can you devise that will separate you from your competitors and ensure that shoppers keep coming back? This is a question that should be answered now. Think outside the box and offer coupons or special discounts for bulk orders. Free or discounted shipping during the holidays is always a popular choice as well. Regardless, set your promotional schedule in advance and make sure that ALL promotions are prominently displayed on your homepage.

–Advertising: while it’s great to have free or low-cost options to promote yourself, intelligent and targeted advertising is still a great way to get the word out about your store. But as we always say on this page, do your research and don’t pursue advertising options that will not pay off in the end. Consider a banner ad campaign starting as early as October to plant the seed in consumers’ minds about your site. If you have pages on social networking sites, take a look at their advertising packages as well. Even if you spend just a little on advertising now, the payoff at the end of the year could be great.

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Holiday 2008 Shopping Data

Posted in Online Shopping, tagged , , on January 6, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

TOP OVERALL PRODUCT SEARCHES
 
 Canon Digital Cameras
 Garmin GPS
 Nintendo Wii Systems
  Apple Ipod Touch
 Samsung Plasma TVs
 Elmo Live
 Nintendo Wii Fit
 KitchenAid Mixers
 Macbook Pro
 Bootie Women’s Boots
 Ugg Boots
 
 TOP OVERALL PRODUCT CATEGORIES
 
 Digital Cameras
 MP3 Players
 Women’s Boots
 
 TOP INDUSTRIES AND TOP SEARCHES FOR EACH:
 
 Electronics:
 
 Canon Digital Cameras
 Apple Ipod Touch
 Sony Blu-Ray Disc Players
 Samsung Plasma TVs
 Garmin GPS
 
 Toys:
 
 Elmo Live
 Lego Star Wars
 Leapfrog Leapster
 Little Tikes Riding Toys
 FurReal Friends
 
 Computers:
 
 Macbook Pro
 Lenovo Notebook
 Samsung LCD Monitor
 
 Apparel:
 
 Ugg Boots
 Satchel Handbag
 Nike Shox
 Booties
 Leather Jacket
 
 Home & Garden:
 
 Waffle Makers
 Digital Photo Frames
 KitchenAid Mixers
 George Foreman Grills
 Tool Sets
 Cookware Sets

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