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Posts Tagged ‘Internet Retailer’

More Halloween Shoppers Flocking to the Web

Posted in Ecommerce, Online Shopping, Retail, tagged , , , , , , , on October 8, 2010 | 2 Comments »

Halloween a little over three weeks away and we realized today that we have yet to really cover anything about what is a very important shopping holiday for many merchants and e-tailers.

Fortunately, just in the nick of time, a new round of research from Internet Retailer has emerged giving a glimpse into the expected Halloween shopping habit of consumers here in 2010. Conducted in late September by Lightspeed Online Research, the survey polled more than 2,000 consumers on what they plan to spend on Halloween this year and which factors they consider when choosing particular retailers for their costume and decoration needs.

Reinforcing just how popular Halloween is, 68 percent of those polled said they plan to buy items for the holiday this shopping season.  Furthermore, the number of consumers choosing to use the web to purchase those items continues to be on the rise, with 35 percent indicating they’ll go online for Halloween goods in 2010.

What are they shopping for?   Not surprisingly, 71 percent said costumes are what they’re shopping on the web for the most, with decorations (59 percent) and accessories/makeup (44 percent) close behind.

And as with past Halloweens, there is some serious revenue to be made by retailers—71 percent of those polled expect to spend between $25 and $100 on Halloween this year.

Other results from Internet Retailer’s survey:

–online Halloween shopping definitely skews towards younger individuals: 46 percent are between 18 and 34, 40 percent are 35-54, and only 14 percent are over the age of 55;

–when asked why they choose to shop online for Halloween, the leading response was convenience and time-saving (29 percent), just edging out selection (27 percent). Less common reasons were lower prices (17 percent) and the ability to comparison-shop (13 percent);

–those who don’t prefer shopping online cited being able to see items in person before buying (53 percent) and the overall experience of visiting actual storefronts (41 percent) as their top reasons for choosing brick and mortar stores over the web.

While Halloween certainly doesn’t come close to the holiday shopping season later this year in terms of potential for revenue and sales, it’s pretty obvious that consumers take their Halloween costumes and shopping seriously.

If you haven’t started shopping for a costume yet, there are a ton of fun themes and ideas for 2010. As in years past, popular culture is driving many of the most popular costumes this year, with Jersey Shore characters, Avatar, and Lady Gaga just a few of the most sought-after costumes. If you’re looking for both kids and adult costume ideas, head over to SortPrice.com, which just posted its annual Halloween Shopping Guide.

In the meantime, we’d love to get some comments from our readers telling us what costumes they’ve decided on for 2010!

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Internet Retailer Announces Annual Top Ten Net Retailers

Posted in Ecommerce, Online Shopping, Retail, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 6, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

Our friends over at Internet Retailer are about to unveil their annual Top 500 Guide of the biggest web merchants out there on May 10, and it’s a resource guide that we recommend to anyone involved with e-commerce.

A few days before the official release date, however, IR has already put out the Guide’s top ten list and it’s full of big names and heavy hitters within the e-commerce industry.  Already well-established as industry leaders, this group took an even bigger slice of the overall online shopping pie in 2009, according to Internet Retailer.

Sitting atop the list yet again is Amazon, the clear market leader, which reported $24.51 billion in sales in 2009, up almost 28 percent from the $19.17 billion it had in 2008.  The introduction of the Kindle e-reader certainly helped drive Amazon’s success last year, as did their $900 million acquisition of web shoe giant Zappos.

The entire top ten is as follows, with their 2009 sales totals and percentage of change from the previous year:

1. Amazon (AMZN)
2. Staples Inc (SPLS):  $9.8 billion, up 27.3 percent
3. Dell Inc (DELL):  $4.53 billion, down 6.2 percent
4. Apple Inc (AAPL):  $4.25 billion, up 16.7 percent
5. Office Depot (ODP): $4.1 billion, down 14.6 percent
6. Wal-Mart.com (WMT): $3.5 billion, up 19.8 percent
7. OfficeMax (OMX): $2.78 billion, down 10 percent
8. Sears Holdings Corp. (SHLD):  $2.77 billion, up 3 percent
9. CDW Corp. (CDW): $2.47 billion, down 5 percent
10. Best Buy (BBY): $2.45 billion, up 20 percent

That’s a pretty impressive line-up. According to Internet Retailer, those ten outlets accounted for more than 45 percent of all U.S. e-commerce sales in 2009 ($134.9 billion total), and 48 percent of all sales within the overall Top 500.   As a group, they increased their sales in 2009 by 14 percent as well.

So how are they doing it?  After all, 2009 wasn’t exactly a banner year for the U.S. economy and yet even with half of this top ten list reporting a decrease in sales, they managed to grab almost half of all online sales during the year.

Besides having strong name recognition and brand awareness, these retailers re-focused their efforts on their most loyal customers last year and generated strong sales by offering large quantities of  merchandise with plenty of discount deals and a superior online shopping experience.  Amazon, for example, continues to be an industry leader in outstanding customer service despite its large size, offering smaller retailers a lesson that more often than not, good customer relations and service is perhaps the most important ingredient to e-commerce success.

Head over to InternetRetailer.com to learn more about the annual Top 500 Guide or to order your own copy.  In the meantime, leave us your thoughts and comments about your own experiences with any of the retailers here in the top ten!

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Amazon Keeps Hold of Top Spot in Online Retail ‘Buzz’ Rankings

Posted in General News / Technology, Retail, tagged , , , , , , , on April 9, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

Amazon is still the most talked-about retailer on the web, according to a cool little set of rankings being posted by Internet Retailer today, but there are quite a few other big name merchants that are starting to close the gap.

Compiled by digital marketing firm Zeta Interactive, the Zeta Buzz Top 25 Retail Standings Index is a monthly measurement of online retail chatter.  The company creates their rankings by tracking mentions of retailer names over millions of blogs and online communities every month and then analyzing what’s being said in those mentions–both good and bad.  Scores for each company are created by multiplying the number of mentions times a percentage of positive tones in those mentions and then dividing by 10.  Scores of 60 and higher are considered solid for large retailers.

Amazon claimed the top spot for the seventh consecutive month in the rankings, with Wal-Mart finishing second.  Home Depot and Lowe’s are third and fourth, respectively but the distance between Amazon and its nearest competitors is tighter than it has been since the rankings debuted last summer.

Home Depot trails Amazon by only 40 points in this month’s rankings, making up almost 90 points from last month.  Amazon’s rating of positive and negative feedback on social media and blog postings dipped by two percentage points this month as well to help contribute to a closer contest for the top spot.

“It’s clear that consumers are becoming much more vocal in their advocacy and critique of these brands,” said Al DiGuido, Zeta Interactive’s CEO.  “For retailers this has created a greater demand for them to pay closer attention to their digital marketing strategies.  It’s clear that the brands that are moving up on the Zeta Buzz report are executing digital programs that are driving larger communities of brand evangelists, thus generating the most buzz.”

We’ve reported on other kinds of retail rankings in the past.  But what we like about the Zeta Buzz rankings is that they offer a snapshot of consumer sentiment rather than relying on black and white data like stock prices or sales figures.  By gathering data straight from the mouths of consumers, we’re able to gauge just how strong a retail brand is performing with the shopping public.  These rankings can also give smaller retailers a blueprint for expanding their own digital marketing strategies to be more effective.

You can find the entire top 25 of the Zeta Buzz on Internet Retailer’s site but here are the top ten companies in the March rankings.  Following each retailer’s name is their Zeta Buzz rating, with the total number of online mentions for March and the percentage of positive mentions in parenthesis:

1. Amazon.com: 382.29 (4,201,000, 91%)
2. Wal-Mart: 357.39 (3,971,000, 90%)
3. Home Depot: 348.97 (3,921,000, 89%)
4. Lowe’s: 314.64 (3,933,000, 80%)
5. Target: 313.32 (3,730,000, 84%)
6. Sears: 308.05 (3,582,000, 86%)
7. Kmart: 296.71 (3,804,000, 78%)
8. Overstock: 245.00 (2,663,000, 92%)
9. Kohl’s: 217.82 (2,866,000, 76%)
10. Best Buy: 196.91 (2,661,000, 74%)

If you’re a retailer, you should be shooting to move your way up a list like this in the future.  And if you’re a shopper, it’s nice to know that your feedback, blogging and social shopping activities on the web are being recognized in a meaningful way.  So keep it up, people are obviously listening to what you have to say!

Leave us your thoughts and comments below.

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