The holiday season really will be starting earlier this year, at least on the Internet, according to results of the 2006 eHoliday Mood Survey conducted by BizRate Research for Shopzilla and Shop.org.
This year, 38.5 percent of multichannel retailers said they would start their holiday marketing earlier this year than last; more than half (62.5 percent) will begin promotions by November 4. This trend is in proportion to consumer preferences, as one in five (19.8 percent) online shoppers said they plan to shop for holiday gifts earlier this year and 34.9 percent will start their shopping by Halloween.
“Due to shipping deadlines, online retailers have a shorter promotional window for the holiday season, so many of them want to be first out of the gate to debut holiday merchandise,” said Scott Silverman, executive director of Shop.org. “Multichannel retailers are very good at responding to what their customers want, and this year, customers want to start shopping early.”
An increasing number of online retailers will offer shipping promotions this year that include free shipping with or without conditions and discounted shipping. Two years ago only 64 percent of online retailers offered free shipping with conditions; this year, 83 percent of retailers will be offering the promotion. This trend is in line with customer expectations, as three-fourths of shoppers (74.9 percent) said free shipping offers are one of the most important factors when they decide where to buy online.
Many retailers will also be adding “early shopper” discounts (12 percent of retailers will be adding this service for the first time, with 38.7 percent of retailers offering it) and “first time buyer” discounts (13.3 percent will add this service for the first time, with 30.6 percent of retailers offering it) this year.
To bring customers to their Web sites, multichannel retailers will be planning a variety of online and offline marketing strategies for the holidays. Most online retailers (97.4 percent) will be investing in search engine marketing and comparison shopping engines (73.1 percent). Companies are also using more unconventional online marketing strategies, with 41.6 percent of retailers incorporating blogs or RSS feeds and 79.5 percent of retailers using viral marketing. Offline retailers will invest in traditional media advertising in newspapers (44 percent) and magazines (52 percent), and on radio (31.6 percent) and television (26.3 percent).
“Online shoppers have become more diverse than ever in terms of when and how they shop, so retailers must market to the masses this year,” said Helen Malani, Shopzilla’s chief shopping expert. “Multichannel retailers plan to maximize their sales by advertising both online and offline this holiday season.”
The survey also found that companies are extremely optimistic about holiday sales, with one in five online retailers (20.5 percent) expecting to experience hyper-growth of 75 percent or more over last year. An additional third (29.5 percent) plan to experience strong growth from 30-74 percent, and one in five (21.8 percent) are projecting growth between 15-29 percent over last holiday.
