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. 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

In preparing for the upcoming holiday season, first take a look at past online marketing campaigns and identify successes and failures. Conduct a thorough analysis of all metrics and take advantage of experience so as to craft the most effective 2009 campaign. Below is a list of items to take into consideration when revisiting these previous initiatives:

• Review your ROI from 2008 and determine the key factors driving business from your online marketing efforts.
• Analyze your principal benchmarks from last year, including: shopping cart funnel abandonment; average order values; conversion rates; online advertising ROI; overall site traffic broken down by SEO, paid search, affiliates, social, etc.; 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.
• Break down all metrics by segments, including: marketing channel referrals (SEO, paid search, affiliates, social, referring domains, etc.); new vs. returning visitors; existing customers vs. new customers.
• Set aside 15% of your budget for testing and optimization efforts using segments and metrics, such as: testing past success against new ideas without complete site redesigns; 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.
• Determine your best promotions and keywords from past campaigns and use them again – shoppers in 2009 are still price-sensitive and deal-driven.

NO TIME LIKE THE PRESENT

As marketers seek to engage and convert consumers, they need to be cautious of falling victim to "conversion tunnel vision," says George Stanger, BGT's Director of Analytics. Many e-tailers concentrate too heavily on pulling traffic to the website and are not prepared for the spike in visitors. It's essential to plan accordingly, in the present moment, to handle this bump and avoid a massive meltdown during the peak weeks of the online holiday shopping season. The following tactics can help e-tailers ensure that everything runs smoothly throughout the entire holiday season:

• 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. Plan appropriately so your budget will last for the entire holiday season.
• 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.
• Utilize optimization best practices and A/B test your email content to be sure it's carried through to email landing pages. These efforts should be focused on programs that you know convert first, especially with existing customers.
• 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.
• Use site-optimization software, like Google Site Optimizer or Omniture's Test&Target, and implement an optimization strategy around the holidays. The learning you can achieve will be invaluable for future online marketing successes.
• Build customer confidence and loyalty by offering flexible return and exchange polices and 100-percent satisfaction guarantees. Post confidence logos throughout the site for those concerned about security and offer alternative payment options for customers using PayPal or Google Checkout.
• Don't focus solely on Black Friday and Cyber Monday (Dec. 1) and be sure to have all major celebrations such as Hanukah and Three Kings Day on your calendar.

THE 11th HOUR IN THE 12th MONTH

Your online holiday shopping strategy might be organized and forward thinking, but it's important to factor in the human element of saving everything to the last minute. These late shoppers represent a major sales opportunity and should not be ignored. Meeting the needs of customers in the final two weeks of the season involves considerable planning and preparation. Some tactics you can employ in order to engage last-minute shoppers include:

• 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. Be clear as to when the gifts will actually arrive.
• Reduce the stress of last-minute shopping by offering easy problem solving services like live chat and 24-hour customer service.
• Keep shoppers informed of delivery deadlines and sales that are expiring.
• Manage your keywords by date – for example ramp up gift card keywords after your delivery deadline has passed.
• Entice gift card recipients to return to your site with email campaigns advertising post-holiday sales.

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.

David Clarke is Founder and Managing Partner of BGT Partners, one of the most award-winning independent interactive agencies in the world. Headquartered in Miami, and with offices in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles, BGT was founded in 1996 and has earned the reputation as a Global 2000 professional services firm. Under Clarke's leadership, the firm has experienced double-digit growth every year since its inception, including near-30 percent growth in 2009. To connect with David Clarke, please visit his LinkedIn profile, his Twitter account and BGT's Facebook page.