eCommerce: Last Minute U.S. Christmas Shoppers On the Rise

Amanda Brooke — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 17:53:00 +0000

The National Retail Federation announced today that only 46.7% of US consumers had completed their Christmas shopping by the end of the second week of December, which should be of interest to anyone with an ecommerce store.

Those are the stats according to NRF’s 2009 Holiday Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey, conducted by BIGresearch.

Based on survey results, almost 42 million people, 19.1%, hadn’t even started their shopping yet as of late last week.

A mere 8.6% had completely finished their holiday shopping.

Of that minority group, people aged 65 and older had completed the most shopping, 50%, and those aged 45-54 have completed the least at 44.1%.

The survey found that only 11.9% of shoppers plan to complete their gift buying on Christmas Eve. The majority are planning to wrap up their Christmas shopping by December 19th.

During these lean times of a national recession, consumers are looking for bargains. So, discount stores can expect to see a fresh wave of shoppers this coming weekend.

Ditto for grocery stores because more people are buying food such as candy or fruit as gifts this year than last year, and buying groceries to cook meals at home during the holidays rather than eating out.

44.7% of shoppers say they are buying clothing as gifts this year. Almost 40% of shoppers are buying DVDs, books, CDs, videos and video games.

Toys account for 34.6% of sales this holiday season. Gift cards make up 27.5%. Consumer electronic sales are about 22%.

More people are paying with checks, cash or debit cards than credit cards.

Now, about those procrastinators:

“Retailers know the final lap counts the most and are planning to emphasize promotions and discounts to bring in last-minute shoppers,” said Tracy Mullin, President and CEO, NRF. “As Christmas Day creeps closer, retailers will be ready for an influx of procrastinators, from those who are checking the final names off their list to millions who haven’t even started shopping.”

Based on survey findings, 38% of these last minute shoppers will be shopping online.

This means that if you have an online store, you need to be sure that all is in readiness for the last final surge of Christmas shoppers.

If at all possible, offer expedited shipping because time is running out on buying online and getting delivery by Santa’s big day. Also, if you aren’t already offering online gift cards and e-gift certificates, you should give this some serious consideration.

As we enter the countdown and it’s right down to the wire, having online gift certificates available or not might well make the difference between making a sale or losing it.

So, heads up, ecommerce entrepreneurs! Make routine checks to ascertain that your website is optimized and maximized to the nth degree for that horde of last minute shoppers!

eCommerce: Last Minute U.S. Christmas Shoppers On the Rise is a post from: Dropship Resource

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Why Should Online Shoppers Buy From You?

bobby — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 12:01:00 +0000

Without wanting to state the obvious but……

competition is fierce in the world of online retailing. It doesn’t matter what you’re selling, unless you have designed and made it yourself the chances are that you aren’t the only online store selling the same item.

In fact, there are probably hundreds or even thousands of other e-commerce websites selling exactly the same products as you.

So, why should any online shoppers buy from you and not one of the many other online stores?

In order to stay on top of the heap and achieve those sales, you have to ask yourself that question…..and then do your best to answer it and take the required action!

Let’s say that you sell a popular and very well known brand of work boots called bestevaboot. When any online shopper does a Google search for “work boots” or “bestevaboot” they will be bombarded with many pages of results.

So, what can you do to set yourself apart and above the rest of your competitors selling these bestevaboots? How can you convince the shoppers to part with their cash and buy from you instead of the multitude also offering the exact, identical product?

Well, you might try reducing your price to undercut your competition, but this is definately not advisable, simply because it’s a mission to failure, a game you can’t and won’t win. There will always be competitors who will lower their prices even more so than yours, in the hopes of acheiving a sale. This may happen for a short while, until either you or yet another competitor comes along and cuts prices even lower. Ultimately, you wouldn’t have any profit left, and that defeats the whole purpose of being in business, doesn’t it? So definately rule out the idea of trying to sell your products cheaper than everybody else.

What else might you do to make your e-commerce site stand out in the crowd and encourage shoppers to buy from you before anyone else?

One proven tactic you might consider is making your website more interactive. Internet marketing research has shown that shoppers really, really love websites that allow them to interact. You may have to shell out some bucks to hire a pro to do this for you, but sometimes you simply have to spend money to make money.

Or, another proven option is to make your product descriptions a bit more appealing and descriptive. Many entrepreneurs vastly underestimate the importance of good, informatime (and not forgetting accurate!)product descriptions. So food for thought there….don’t make the same mistake, that will give you an edge over a lot of the competition.

Think about it for a moment, if you are selling bestevaboot work boots and your competitor is also selling bestevaboot work boots and his product descriptions reads “Leather work boots. bestevaboot. Brown.” and your e-commerce store description for the same pair of boots reads “Bestevaboot: Rugged, high quality work boots since 1901. Rich brown smooth leather, high cushioned padded collars, steel toes, lug soles for extra traction, waterproof and insulated to keep your feet dry and warm—built tough and made to last!”

Which site sounds like they offer the better deal?

There are other ways to get shoppers to buy from you instead of your competition, these are just a couple of suggestions to guide you in the right direction.

Put your thinking cap on and jot down some ideas of things you might to do increase your competitive edge, maybe experiment with your ideas and then in theory you will be watching your sales increase!

Why Should Online Shoppers Buy From You? is a post from: Dropship Resource

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eCommerce: Last Minute U.S. Christmas Shoppers On the Rise

Why Should Online Shoppers Buy From You?