Holiday shoppers begin browsing and buying early online

[September 25th 2001]

The online holiday shopping season begins in October, long before many retailers gear up their electronic merchandising efforts. That's one of the conclusions drawn from Fry Multimedia's analysis of 2 million Internet shopping trips.

"We're accustomed to seeing Christmas trees and holiday displays at the mall before Halloween. While it may irritate some shoppers, it's good marketing," says Kara Heinrichs, chief customer experience officer at Fry Multimedia. "Our research suggests it makes good business sense for retailers to do the same thing online. Basically, they can't start too soon -- as much as we hate to suggest it."

Fry's Customer Experience division conducts research to help its clients operate more effective online stores. Preliminary results of the holiday e- tail study have important ramifications for retail companies trying to improve online performance. For example:

• Traffic on retail sites begins to increase in October, so online shoppers might be receptive to holiday merchandising and promotions earlier than most retailers realize. They also may appreciate the ability to order gifts in October or November with delivery delayed until December.

• Retail traffic spikes in the evening -- between 7 p.m. and midnight -- during the holiday shopping season. This means marketing efforts -- e-mail campaigns or banner ads, for example -- might be more effective during those hours.

• During the holiday shopping season visitors are more likely to arrive at retail sites by way of search engines -- and by way of search terms that are generic (such as "pajamas") rather than brand or product specific. Retail Web site owners who aggressively grab those generic keywords on popular search engines -- through paid placements, if necessary -- will ensure their sites show up near the top of the screen when holiday shoppers search for those generic terms.

• Many consumers visit sites for the first time while gift hunting during the holidays. Companies can use this opportunity to entice first-time buyers to come back -- perhaps with an e-coupon redeemable in January.

• Buyers are drawn to lists of top-selling items on retail sites, presumably because they are reassured that those items are popular and, therefore, likely to be well-received gifts. Retailers can provide a helpful service and boost sales by displaying a "best sellers" list on their home page or in close proximity to a "gift-finder" feature.

• Most of the year, a typical consumer will visit a Web site three to seven times over the course of 20 to 30 days before making a purchase -- but not during the holidays. At that time, people are less likely to visit an e- tail site repeatedly, but they spend more time and hit more pages per visit. This means it's critical for sites to make it easy for uninitiated visitors to find everything they need -- including shipping charges, warranties and return policies (which are particularly important when buying a gift.)

• Consumers are more time-strapped than ever during the holidays, so they might be receptive to promotions and features that reward them for buying multiple gifts at a site -- such as reduced shipping costs for larger orders or a checkout process that easily accommodates shipping to multiple addresses.

• Use of "Wish Lists" -- a place where online shoppers can store an item they are considering -- increases during the holidays. Even so, Wish Lists remain under-utilized, employed on less than 1 percent of all visits. "Wish Lists need to be re-conceived," Heinrichs says. "Part of the problem is the name -- people don't intuitively grasp what it is." One alternative would be shopping carts that remain active for a longer time before they expire, so shoppers can store merchandise between visits.

• Gift certificates are increasingly popular. Retailers should offer them (even if they have to partner with a third party to do so), promote them, and allow them to be redeemed online or in the store.

Links
Fry Multimedia		http://www.frymulti.com