Wednesday
November 26, 2008
Couple of stories that I’m reading this morning:
CNBC’s got a great run down on Amazon’s holiday strategy. The online retailer saw a 42% sales growth in Q4 2007 and forecasts 12 – 15% growth this year. Remarkable feat considering consumer spending is forecast to be down this season. The retailer looks to siphon sales from other retailers by offering low prices and “ridiculous deals”.
Shop.org has released more data on expected consumer habits through this Holiday season and especially for this weekend. Bottom line, consumers are using the web to enhance their real world shopping experience. Be prepared.
Just on the heals of reporting very soft e-commerce sales growth in October, Comscore forecasts flat growth in e-commerce sales for this holiday season. They estimate a 4% decline in sales through the first 23 days of the Nov-Dev shopping season.
Earlier today I talked about JCPenney’s use of social media, Twitter, and viral marketing. I missed this press release from the retailer detailing some of the improvements they’ve launched on jcp.com for a better online shopping experience. More product photos, customer reviews, and more online-only promotions. Kohl’s holiday strategy also emphasized a better online experience.
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Results from the 2008 eHoliday Survey, conducted by Shop.org and Shopzilla, have been released. The results offer an intriguing look into the state of online retail as we enter the heart of the Holiday season. Seeking Alpha has all of the results of the survey, which is a very good read for anyone involved in the industry right now. The survey paints a picture of an industry that may have worry about the economic downturn and knows it is not immune from pain.
Among the items that interested me: it appears that retailers will continue to offer free shipping promotions, but either increase the requirements to trigger the promotion or cut promotions in other areas. Free shipping is still a big deal.
When it comes to site usability and features:
Many retailers have rolled out new website features to improve the customer experience. Features like improved site search, which 42.9% of retailers added or improved since last holiday season, will help customers navigate sites more easily.
Other features, like product video (42.6%) and customer reviews (32.7%) can give shoppers more information to make buying decisions.
For price-focused shoppers, retailers have added and enhanced both clearance-sale pages (27.1%) and featured-sale pages (31.3%).
In addition, retailers continue to experiment with social networking: Nearly one-fourth (25.0%) of online retailers added a Facebook page this year.
This season will see a lot of experimenting with social media and non-traditional product detail and category pages. I’m really eager to see what retailers roll out in 2009 if these limited engagement tests pay off during the holiday season.
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