12/05/08 by seobrien | Comparison Shopping, Insights / Research | 3 Comments »
So what of the holiday shopping season? Sure, I’m late to the game with my assessment of Black Friday and Cyber Monday; what can I say? I wanted to do my due diligence and add some perspective to what’s going on.
Key take away is that the season seems to off to a steady start; up roughly 2%-3% from the same period last year. There were reports of Dell, Amazon, Victoria’s Secret…. all having issues with their sites as online traffic increased nearly 50% from last year. The two numbers seem to suggest consumer sentiment – I am shopping but we aren’t spending more than 2007. If ever there was an opportunity to study how online behavior influences offline demand, it was this.
How can I possibly infer such a thing? Did you notice that purchases using Paypal were up 26% with purchases made using Paypal up 34%? When online sales were only up 2%??? I don’t have the data available to back it up but it has been my experience that Paypal is used, primarily, for lower ticket purchases – “I am shopping but we aren’t spending more than 2007″
Report after report tells the same story – traffic WAY up / sales… so-so.
The question is whether or not this trend will continue and how online merchants can continue to improve conversion and cart size to capitalize on that traffic. Performics discovered while trending online store sales that overwhelmingly, sales still occur offline, “Tweens were most likely to purchase apparel and electronics, but despite the notion that Tweens often “live†online, most make and recommend purchases offline.” While the data suggests sales will continue to climb with each consecutive Monday, we must be cognizant of the fact that they are still largely offline.
“Consumers turn to search for different reasons,†said Michael Kahn, VP, account management and marketing for Performics. “Online strategies from one marketer to the next can look like night and day depending on the verticals and target segments each needs to navigate. In some cases, consumers use search to buy; in others, it’s a research tool, often used to find offline retail locations.â€
One thing is clear, this is the time of year (rather, it is probably too late isn’t it?) to focus on cart size and conversion. Take a hint from “those brits,” pay attention to landing pages and the conversion funnel or heck, use your mind.
Of course, I share these optimistic tidings as many are looking for jobs. Make sure to give Indeed a try as you search and stay LinkedIn (which I shouldn’t have to explain – Come say hello) I suppose we could take a hint and revert to offline!?
09/26/08 by seobrien | Analytics, Brand Marketing, Comparison Shopping, Display Advertising, Insights / Research, Local, Paid Search, Search, Social Media, Web 2.0 | 1 Comment »
eMarketer has a great jump on the holiday shopping season (it isn’t even Halloween yet!) with brilliant perspective on the increasing demands made by online consumers.
They expect retail Websites to provide powerful search and navigation, quality product information, simple checkout and cross-channel shopping options—at a minimum.
Surprisingly, according to a survey by Retail Systems Research, 56% of online merchants can’t figure out how their customers use their sites!? Troubling, as today’s site should be designed by metrics and performance, not focus groups and theories. In this day and age when everything can be tested and optimized, you have no excuse. (funny, I wrote that last sentence before reaching the end of the eMarketer article; that is, the point where it highlights that “customer behavior tracking” – no explanation of what that is by the way – is both the most effective and most disappointing priority. At least, I think that’s what the chart is meant to say – please comment if I’ve misread it).
Worse, the study suggest that nearly half, haven’t figured out how to coordinate channels to create a shopping experience that creates synergy rather than conflict. I don’t want to get into this topic now other than to say look to your friendly neighborhood search engines and social media to effectively promote both.
Now, how’s this for a challenge:
While you are busy meeting increasing customer engagement and performance online, the DMA finds that your old fashioned print catalog still accounts for, on average, 50% of sales. Dealing with channel conflict with a catalog is certainly much more of a challenge, but not impossible. The real question is where you put those resources. Significant development work to support performance based online marketing and conversion improvements as well as rich and social media solutions to increase online engagement OR attention on maintaining half of your revenue stream? The answer is again, “effectively both.”
I’ve seen tremendous success in using online insights and performance to drive catalog optimization. How? Search behavior is perhaps the best leading indicator of consumer demand and trends while a catalog can easily blend product promotions with online resources, promoting the opportunities you create for customers to socially interact with your brand.
What else has your attention? I’m not aware of too many other priorities that can have as significant an impact on your holiday season but I’d love to hear from you.
12/14/07 by seobrien | Brand Marketing, Fun, Targeting | No Comments »
Happy Festivus everyone! With the annual debate and debacle over the use of “Christmas” and related symbolism, this clip came across my desk as a breath of fresh air. I share it with you not to stimulate that debate of “Holiday” vs. Christmas but to pose interesting Marketing questions that come to mind. First, enjoy:
As for the encouraged debate, CitizenLink has a forum open for just such discussion.
At Pubcon last week, Did-it’s Kevin Lee posited that Geo segmentation can be the most effective form of paid search optimization. This video drives home for me that it is not segmentation but personalization that is most effective.
Whether or not the use of “Holiday” in place of “Christmas” is really the issue at hand, reporter (?) Stuart Shepard effectively points out that Hearth Song is promoting Holiday savings and Shutterfly enables their customers to make “Holiday cards with Holiday designs” yet, who celebrates Holiday? He further cites that sure, marketers can claim to be referring to all the holidays this time of year but there are only 3 that come to mind for me: Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years. I’m not buying gifts for Thanksgiving or New Years and I’m certain friends don’t intend to buy gifts for anything more than Hanukkah. I’m not celebrating Holidays for which I’m buying decorations, greeting cards, and gifts so why market to me as though that were the case?
On the radio this morning, I heard Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty incredulous at the discovery of “Santa Blend” coffee gift packages at a major bookstore. As they complained of the fear of marketers in saying “Christmas” with such an obvious and relevant opportunity to market to their clearly intended audience, my mind wandered to thoughts of what exactly goes into making the Santa Blend? Fine Columbian Dark Roast with ground St. Nicholas? Seems to me that has more religious implications than calling it a Christmas Blend. I then laughed as this pointed, contentious (if I’m offending anyone by even bringing up this topic) issue was validated by one of their own advertisers who had a commercial with an Elf as the voice talent. The Elf explained how it was his job to spread “Holiday cheer” and assist with the Holidays before the spot ended with a “Happy Holidays” …. um….. The only other holiday of which I’m aware that uses anything resembling an elf is my personal favorite ethnic holiday that takes place in March. Perhaps that elf is responsible for making Christmas toys and hiding pots o’ gold under rainbows.
To what extent does not marketing these gifts/opportunities properly alienate customers more than appealing to everyone?
The promise of online personalization, behavioral targeting, and keyword relevance will be a boon to our economy and online experience. We may shudder at the thought of big brother knowing so much about us but I for one want to know where to buy Christmas decorations and gifts to really bring in to my home the Christmas spirit. I know as much is true of friends of other faiths and beliefs; that their families don’t celebrate “Holiday.” Perhaps our celebration of Tossmass will compel marketers to do better, to do right.
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