Holiday Retail Sales from Paid Search Will Grow 15%
According to Performics, a Chicago-based performance-marketing company, holiday retail sales from actively managed paid search campaigns will grow by 15 percent in 2010.
A factor in this upbeat prediction is the success met by actively managed holiday paid search campaigns in 2009, when 25.7 percent more was spent and 24.0 percent more in year-over-year sales were observed.
Performics also points to the declining average order value, which is down 9 percent year-to-date.
The company also points to the popularity of “delayed shopping to capitalize on free shipping” in 2009, as more consumers waited until the last week of free standard shipping before Christmas.
Lastly, Performics notes that in the week after free standard shipping prior to Christmas in 2009, spending and CPCs dropped significantly, which opened up more efficiency for last-minute shopping, or as the company notes, “active paid search advertisers can do more for less after December 17.”
The company’s retail client group is recommending that “clients design standalone search campaigns specifically to target mobile devices instead of extending their standard paid search campaigns into the mobile arena,” according to Daina Middleton, CEO of Performics. “Performics’ clients who’ve already made this change have seen costs per click drop by 60 percent on average with click through rates more than doubling.”
Paid search holiday advertisers are recommended to do the following:
- “Follow best practices to actively mange campaigns and effectively respond to market forces
- Establish standalone mobile search campaigns to boost efficiencies in the emerging channel
- Offer aggressive promotions to capture early shoppers
- Actively participate in the last week of free standard shipping prior to Christmas
- Continue active management beyond December 17 to further boost efficiency”
Earlier this month, comScore reported that e-commerce spending in the third quarter reached $32.1 billion, up 9 percent from the same quarter in 2009, and called the growth “a fairly positive indicator for the upcoming holiday season.” Still, it pointed to high unemployment and a higher consumer savings rate as reasons to rein back expectations.
Meanwhile, eMarketer used US Census Bureau data to project fourth-quarter retail e-commerce sales in the U.S. of $51.4 billion, up 13.7 percent from the same quarter last year.
Sources:</strong
http://www.performics.com/news-room/press-releases/Predicts-Holiday-Campaigns-Grow/1425
http://www.emarketer.com/blog/index.php/tag/holiday-ecommerce-spending/
