E-Day Minus Seven — and Counting
With online marketers marshalling their forces for the kickoff next Friday of (they hope) a record-setting holiday e-commerce binge, a few marketing firms and industry players have published last-minute reconnaissance, studying the terrain and talking to the troops
Online marketing firm Advertising.com’s annual holiday online shopping survey, published yesterday, found that more than half of respondents said they planned to spend as much as they did online for last year’s gifts. They also reportedly intend to start spending earlier: Almost a third of those polled by market research company Insight Express said they would start surfing for gifts before Thanksgiving.
Advertising.com also found that the average holiday shopper researches a product for up to a month before buying, and that 60% of those who look for gifts online prefer to buy them in brick-and-mortar stores.
Top drivers of online shopping traffic during the holidays include generating gift ideas, comparing features of different products, and the convenience of shopping from home, this year’s survey found.
Meanwhile, a poll just released by Yahoo! Small Business and conducted by Harris Interactive found that 76% of holiday shoppers plan to shop for gifts online. That may constitute good news for small e-commerce operations, because 75% of the survey population said they’re likely to purchase from small Internet businesses.
The Yahoo! poll reported that 63% of respondents said online specialty, “niche” or boutique retailers are one of the best places to shop for unusual or unique gifts. Asked what would contribute most to a good shopping experience with a small e-commerce merchant, equal proportions — 76%–stressed a secure online payment system and easy site navigation for browsing, researching and buying. And asked what would entice them most on a small-business Web site this holiday season, 90% said free shipping, while 69% pointed to online discounts and 64% to a no-hassle return policy.
“The survey shows that shoppers have high expectations, but also high confidence in buying holiday gifts online from small businesses,” said Rich Riley, vice president and general manager of Yahoo! Small Business in a release.
Finally, a survey by St. Bernard Software found that 76% of small and mid-sized businesses don’t block employee access to online shopping sites during the work day. That could mean trouble for employers: the software maker predicted that they may see a 50% to 75% increase in non-business “seasonal” Internet usage by the end of the year.
That dovetails with another finding of the Yahoo! survey, in which 20% of respondents said they planned to do some online holiday buying from work. Those desktop Santas are more likely to be male and under 45. Twenty-four percent of men said they would shop the Web at the office, compared to 17% of women, while 26% of the 44-and-younger crowd said the same, compared to 13% of those 45 and up.
