How To Win The 2014 Online Retail Holiday Sales War!
Many experts are predicting this Holiday season to be a good one for retail e-commerce. The majority of all Holiday consumer purchases are either influenced by online research or actually occur online, according to Forrester.
- Forrester Research predicts that US online retail sales during the critical months of November and December will be higher than ever. Forrester projects that the online channel will generate $89 billion during that time — a 13% growth over the same time period in 2013.
- the National Retail Federation announced today it expects sales in November and December (excluding autos, gas and restaurant sales) to increase a healthy 4.1 percent to $616.9 billion,
- Shop.org today released its 2014 online holiday sales forecast, expecting sales in November and December to grow between 8 – 11 percent over last holiday season to as much as $105 billion.
The holiday consumer will be out there and so will the enormous competition for that consumer! So, how do you get that customer and convert that sell? Well-executed online marketing will be key to a successful holiday season. Retailers must engage customers and prospect in a competitive marketplace to capture consumer interest, influence purchases and ultimately drive sales. One -third of retailers surveyed plan to start their online marketing and promotions during the first week of November, compared to one-quarter last year.
There are three key factors to consider when developing an effective marketing plan to capitalize on and profit from the holiday shopping season.
1. Online Marketing is crucial to get the customer!
- Retailers will be using paid search, organic search and retargeting ads among other channels, to get the message out.
- Social media, too, will be part of the mix: Three out of 10 retailers will use Facebook heavily, as well as visually enticing channels like Instagram, Pinterest and YouTube.
- Retailers need to adjust their search strategy to capture shoppers who don’t frequent their site outside the gift giving season.
- Retailers also should develop email remarketing and retargeting ad programs to captures sales from the majority of customers who may indicate interest but don’t convert on their initial site visit.
- retailers that want to be found online this holiday season need to focus on SEO and product information, and make sure they’re listed through Google’s local business products.
2. The online consumer experience is more important than ever to make the sell!
- According to a recent study by IBM “Retailers must be savvier than ever when it comes to delivering a streamlined online shopping experience—making it easy for consumers to find items and providing an enticing brand experience,” a recent IBM report says.
- The average time on site has declined by a full second; Page views per session also hit a new bottom of 6.93 in March 2014.
- And the bounce rate—the percentage of site visitors who leave after viewing just one page—rose to 34.5% in October 2013, a new high “Ultimately, shoppers have little tolerance for poor customer experiences—if they can’t find what they need, they’re moving on,” the report states.
- Heading into the holidays, retailers will need to rely on personalization, customer loyalty programs and cross-sell recommendations to further strengthen customer relationships and wallets.
- To retain the customer it’s so crucial for retailers to have rich, detailed information available to consumers online.
- The most effective are informational video content about products, how-to content, product reviews and “haul” videos (consumers posting videos of their latest shopping purchases).
3. Shoppers are making more purchases via smartphones and tablets!
- Purchases made using a smartphone or tablet rose 48% year-over-year (YoY) in the second quarter, to about $8 billion.
- That’s three times faster than desktop-based e-commerce and the fastest increase in mobile commerce spending since the first quarter of 2012.
- IBM estimates that 20% of site sales and more than 43% of site traffic will come from mobile devices in November 2014.
- Consumers anticipate using their smartphones and tablets to make holiday purchase decisions and to research products.
- Retailers are targeting these shoppers by investing in mobile email optimization as well as smartphone paid campaigns and mobile display ad campaigns.
