2012 Holiday Season Insights and Planning: Key Trends Report

Transcription

1 2012 Holiday Season Insights and Planning: Key Trends Report

2 The recent Experian Webinar 2012 Holiday Season Insights and Planning explored the key trends and recommendations for online retailing over the Christmas period. Whether you were able to view the webinar or not, we hope you find the below summary useful as you prepare for what promises to be a bumper holiday season for online retailers in Let s start with the obvious. A long-held shopping tradition sees retailers thrive in the lead-up to and aftermath of Christmas, with bricks and mortar stores experiencing massive spikes in foot traffic and sales. But what about the burgeoning online environment? How do consumers behave online during November, December and January; and what should retailers be doing to cash in on this behaviour? According to Experian Hitwise data, sites within the Shopping and Classifieds category experience a spike in traffic during the holiday season that mirrors traditional retail. Looking at the data from the past two years, there is obvious growth in visitor numbers to the category in November, December and January with a clear spike in December. In December 2011, for example, there were half a billion visits to sites in the category. With an Internet population of 19 million in Australia, this equates to about 26 visits per person almost one a day. The increase in visitation to online shopping sites during this period represents a huge opportunity for retailers. In fact, extrapolating past years data, Experian Marketing Services predicts that 2012 will see 25 million more visitations to online shopping sites over the holiday period compared to last year. This is a significant increase of which all retailers should take notice. For marketers, this means 25 million more chances to convert browsers to buyers; 25 million more chances to add a consumer to your loyalty program; or 25 million more chances to increase the basket size of a converted consumer by giving them targeted offers on new products that complement their chosen purchase. So how do marketers best leverage these great opportunities? As search, and social are the top three drivers to the Shopping and Classifieds category over the holiday season, Experian recommends focusing efforts on implementing best-practice campaigns and strategies in these areas.

3 Driver #1: Search Search is the strongest driver to the Shopping and Classifieds category. It is a key tool in attracting people that want to buy to your website; and is valuable in giving consumers the confidence that they will be able to find what they are looking for on your site. As such, marketers should ensure that their websites are better geared for SEO, and that a carefully calculated SEM plan is in place for the holiday period. Key search tips: Plan SEM campaigns carefully: Take into account that Sundays are the peak visitation days in the two months leading up to Christmas, with a slight drop in traffic in the third week of December. Boxing Day represents a huge peak in search traffic, with the time spent per visit increasing by almost 30 per cent on this day, as consumers seek value on big ticket items like electrical goods. Strong baseline activity: Don t just plan for the peaks. You should have a strong baseline SEO/SEM strategy in place to capture the overall rise in traffic during the holiday season. Incorporate smartphone and tablet friendly search methods - ensuring that your campaign incorporates mobile and/or tablet executions could lead to major sales this year. Make your campaigns Pinteresting - Pinterest is one of the hottest names in social media right now perhaps the hottest. And it s looking to be particularly effective for some retailers, as it provides opportunities to entice consumers with beautiful product images. Retailers running a rich media campaign can use Pinterest to enable users to scroll through holiday products, choose their favourite items, pin those directly to their own boards, and of course follow the retailer s Pinterest boards. Driver #2: is the next-strongest driver to the Shopping and Classifieds category online, and should not be underestimated as a powerful marketing tool in the holiday season, as it captures shoppers at peak times that differ from search. Marketers can draw upon a number of proven strategies that are known to boost the results of marketing campaigns in the tightly-contested holiday season. It is all about quality you need a competitive edge and a supercharged strategy that makes your s stand out from the crowd. November is a key month for as people begin their holiday planning, with 70 per cent higher revenue predicted when compared to December, when there is strong visitation but decreased conversion. As such, marketers should have their strategies in place now to capitalise on this trend. Key marketing tips: Segment and target: Tailor your message and target consumers with relevant offers based on previously recorded preferences and profiles. Use the data you have on your customers cleverly, segmenting at both the product and behavioural levels. Time your send: s sent first thing in the morning are perfectly poised to grab attention when customers are using their smartphones on the way to work or logging on to their PCs, and record the highest transaction rates. Give customers what they want: Find out what s important, it can be as simple as free shipping or guaranteed delivery dates. Build these offers into your s, and make sure that you can confidently deliver on them. Use proven keywords: The highest open rates during Christmas will be achieved using a combination of sale and Christmas/New Year in the title. Make your titles as clear and commercial as possible to show people they will be saving money, and you ll boost conversion. Prepare your customers for post-christmas sales: Send an on Friday 23 December outlining the major offers in your post-christmas sales, to plant the seed in consumers minds about where they should spend their money in the sales. Confirmation and follow-up s: Have strong strategies in place for follow-up s to consumers who have already purchased plus those who abandoned your shopping cart but had already entered their personal details. Remarketing campaigns are a great opportunity to slip in a second offer.

4 A two-way relationship. Customers want brands to understand them and engage with them. For marketers, linking communication channels can help maximise this engagement. For example, building active Social Media communities can offer a significant source of interaction, intelligence and promotion in preparation for the Christmas period. What about social? While a recent Experian whitepaper showed that social networks are on the up and up with Australians typically spending 14.5 hours per month on Facebook and co. the holiday season is not the best time for marketers to capitalise on this phenomenon. Over the holiday period, social network usage declines across the board. Along with this decline in overall usage comes a shift in how people are using social networks the focus is on sharing photos, connecting with friends and sending holiday messages. In short, over Christmas, social networks are used for socialising. Given that social doesn t play as significant a role in driving traffic to the shopping and classified category in the holiday season as search and , marketers should review their spend in this period accordingly Overall get started now The holiday season is nearly upon us, and most marketers will have already done much of the hard work in developing campaigns around driving more traffic to online stores and boosting conversion rates. A lot of campaigns can take months to prepare, so if you re not ready early, chances are that you will miss out. That said, if you haven t yet finalised your campaigns, there is still a great opportunity to capitalise on the telling research results from Experian that is, that there will be about 25 million more visits to the shopping and classifieds category during the holiday season. Boost your investment in SEM campaigns and send well-timed, well-executed s to your customer base, and you will be on your way to capturing more sales. Remember, it is critical to model all of your activity around consumer behaviours, knowing where and when consumers will be in market. As the Experian research has shown, the time is ripe to engage with consumers in targeted and compelling ways and you will reap the rewards.

5 Experian Marketing Services Australia Level 6, 580 St Kilda Road Melbourne, VIC, 3004 T: +61 (0) F: +61 (0) E: info@au.experian.com