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Don't Get "Scrooged" this Holiday Season:
A Past, Present & Future Approach for E-Tail Success
As more signs point to an economic recovery, retailers should be increasingly optimistic about the potential that exists for online commerce in the upcoming holiday season. In fact, according to a recent survey by Forrester Research, U.S. online retail sales are expected to grow 11% through 2009 and in a report by eMarketer from April 2009, 58% of companies surveyed saw online sales increase from a year ago:
But while the projections for a bigger pool of online shoppers is promising, it means nothing if e-tailers fail to engage this growing audience – especially during the fast-approaching holiday season. According to George Stanger, BGT's Director of Analytics, in order to maximize your holiday sales, you must employ a past, present and future approach to fully capture this online-spend potential. |
REVISIT PAST CAMPAIGNS
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Review your ROI from 2008 and determine the key factors driving business from your online marketing efforts. |
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Analyze your principal benchmarks from last year, including: shopping cart funnel abandonment; average order values; conversion rates; online advertising ROI; overall site traffic; gross revenue per channel; daily visits; daily conversion rates; bounce rates; content-targeted landing pages; time spent and average number of page views per product category; top exit pages and links. |
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Break down all metrics by segments, including: marketing channel referrals; new vs. returning visitors; existing customers vs. new customers. |
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Set aside 15% of your budget for testing and optimization efforts using segments and metrics, such as: testing past success against new ideas; optimizing your landing pages; testing ad copy and offers; optimizing email campaigns and internal search; testing limited-time offer promotions; remarketing and auto-targeting your emails. |
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Determine your best promotions and keywords from past campaigns and use them again – shoppers in 2009 are still price-sensitive and deal-driven. |
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NO TIME LIKE THE PRESENT
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Determine the last day for on-time delivery and work backward. Launch during the third week of October and focus some initial budget on page-level optimization - this will allow for organic search indexing of your pages. |
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Leverage your existing social media campaigns to promote your holiday products and monitor your brand. Integrate live chat and use Twitter for dialogue with customers and to promote product. |
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Utilize optimization best practices and A/B test your email content to be sure it's carried through to email landing pages. |
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Encourage customers to purchase as many gifts as possible on their holiday lists from your site by offering volume discounts and developing gift guides. Make promotions highly visible so they are easily found by potential customers. Offer extended hours if on the East Coast so you can be available for customers on the West Coast. |
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Use site-optimization software, like Google Site Optimizer or Omniture's Test&Target, and implement an optimization strategy around the holidays. |
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Build customer confidence and loyalty by offering flexible return and exchange polices and 100% satisfaction guarantees. Post confidence logos throughout the site for those concerned about security and offer alternative payment options. |
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Don't focus solely on Black Friday and Cyber Monday (Dec. 1) and be sure to have all major celebrations on your calendar. |
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THE 11th HOUR IN THE 12th MONTH
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Ensure that gifts will be delivered on time by providing several options for last-minute shoppers, such as next-day shipping and instant e-gift cards. |
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Reduce the stress of last-minute shopping by offering easy problem-solving services like live chat and 24-hour customer service. |
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Keep shoppers informed of delivery deadlines and sales that are expiring. |
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Manage your keywords by date - for example ramp up gift card keywords after your delivery deadline has passed. |
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Entice gift card recipients to return to your site with email campaigns advertising post-holiday sales. |
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With more positive economic signs appearing every day, e-tailers should feel confident that consumers will spend over the holiday season, and an increasing number will make their purchases online. To attract those Web dollars, e-tailers need to be proactive and creative and execute a comprehensive past, present and future online marketing campaign. If not, sales will be left on the table and e-tailers will get "scrooged" by consumers and competitors alike.
For the full article, please click here. |
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| Challenge
and Solutions |
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Sept. 25, 2009
MediaPost: New Office Depot Website Boosts Sales
A redesign of Office Depot's website has resulted in increased conversion and an improved customer experience.
"Our objective was to fundamentally improve the customer's experience," said |
Monica Luechtefeld, Executive Vice President of E-Commerce and Direct Marketing for Office Depot. "We wanted to make it faster, simpler and more intuitive."
Office Depot saw the largest spike in engagement with the store locator – nearly a 250% increase, and a conversion rate that grew 5%.
For the full MediaPost article, please click here. |
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Top
of Mind
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BGT has compiled tips, tactics and strategies in order to help you fully prepare for the upcoming holidays and maximize your online sales.
Best
regards,
David
Clarke
Managing Partner
BGT Partners
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