ETD: 744 Free 2003 Holiday Season Online Retail Overview
Report; Holiday Online Shopping;Abbey International Enterprises
E-Tailer's Digest
etd_post@gapent.com
Mon, 08 Dec 2003 17:43:38 -0500
E-Tailer's Digest --- Everything for the Retailer
Issue #0744 December 9, 2003
George Matyjewicz, Moderator mailto:georgem@gapent.com
Published by: GAP Enterprises, Ltd. http://www.etailersdigest.com
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CONTENTS
[1] Greetings
[2] Free 2003 Holiday Season Online Retail Overview report
[3] Holiday Online Shopping
[4] Abbey International Enterprises
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[1] Greetings.
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Hi All:
This northeast U.S. snow storm is sure to put a damper in Holiday sales,
and will probably increase online sales. In the NYC area we had up to 19"
(13" in Central Park). In the Boston area, one community had 57"! I know
we couldn't get to the stores on Saturday. And I'm travelling Tuesday to
Lexington, KY. Hope I don't get stuck in an airport.
All reports say this should be the best year ever for online sales. One of
our list members offers a free survey that is quite good (see 2
below). And a couple of other members found some interesting stats. How
are you doing so far?
I saw an interesting statistic from Visa. We used 4,704 Visa cards per
second during the peak last Christmas Eve, up 35% during a typical
day. That's 282,240 a minute and almost 17 million an hour! During a
typical day it's "only" 183,456 a minute and 11 million an hour! That's a
lot of fees for Visa, eh?
We updated ETD site, including member profiles and the greetings in your
language (http://etailersdigest.com/resources/greetings.htm).
And list member Kabiru Adams tells us about his business
Abbey International Enterprises, a great resource for sporting goods.
Let's hear about your business, which will remain for posterity at
our "Members: Who Are You?" site.
http://etailersdigest.com/resources/members/index.htm And we have a form
there for you to tell us about you. As I said when I first proposed this
idea, we have "known" each other for a long time, yet we often don't know
anything about each other. So, tell us who you are and what you do.
Now, let's get to everything for the retailer.
Sincerely
George Matyjewicz, PhD
Chief Global Strategist, GAP Enterprises, Ltd.
mailto:georgem@gapent.com
http://www.etailersdigest.com
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[2] 2003 Holiday Season Online Retail Overview
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I thought your readers might find this study interesting. We offer this
full report for free as a 13-page pdf download from our home page. Here's
an excerpt from the report...
The Internet has gone through four phases: Pioneer Days was the technology
phase (gopher and BBS); Great Expectations was the design phase (Cool Site
of the Day); the Marketing Phase was next (we'll never forget the wake-up
call when the bubble burst); and now we are moving in to the Business Phase
where business objectives and ROI are critical.
As should be apparent, in the Business Phase the goals of a business
(sales) cannot be realized until the goals of the visitors are satisfied
(purchases). Toward this end, a commercial website must not only provide
information, function well and facilitate clients taking action, it must
also do its best job to persuade, meet and exceed customer expectations.
Future Now Inc.'s 2003 Online Retail Study for Customer Focused Excellence
sent out independent mystery shoppers as well as our own website conversion
specialists to over 60 top retailers' websites. Their mission was to
analyze how customer-focused the retailers' websites were once a customer
identified the product they wanted to purchase.
However, the team was not asked to analyze more subjective variables that
Future Now, Inc. knows are of equal or greater value in a retail website's
success.
They were specifically asked to ignore:
• the price points (inclusive of tax, shipping and handling);
• the ease in locating the products;
• the efficacy of the brand in conveying confidence;
• whether or not the overall design was conducive to credibility and sales;
• the entire customer experience from search to fulfillment of purchases.
Therefore this study does not analyze the entire customer experience.
Rather, it is valuable for the purposes of benchmarking retailer's websites
based on the least subjective criteria. Future Now, Inc. strongly believes
that the amount of attention lavished on becoming cutomer-focused
translates into more sales long-term.
Regards,
Bryan Eisenberg
Future Now Inc. 877-643-7244 or 718-332-1205
"The Conversion Rate Specialists: Creating Persuasive Architecture™ Online
Home Page: http://www.futurenowinc.com
Free Newsletter http://www.grokdotcom.com
Weekly ClickZ's ROI Marketing Column: http://clickz.com/sales/traffic
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[3] Holiday Online Shopping
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I heard this statistic on the radio and then found it on-line. It looks
pretty amazing! 42% increase over last year...
Internet News
US Online Shopping Sees Big Growth in 2003
Date: 11/25/2003
(Article Central) According to a report released this week by Forrester
Research, online shopping is expected to become a $100 billion business in
the United Sates this year.
The upcoming holiday season alone is expected to contribute $12.2 billion
in online sales to the total, an increase of 42 percent over the same
period last year, says the report.
Forrester said the increase in sales was due to growth in consumer spending
on items like apparel, home décor and sporting goods, along with a general
improvement in the economy. Other studies have cited increasing confidence
in using credit cards online as a source of growth.
Online retailers are contributing to the growth with efforts of their own,
offering promotions such as free shipping. Companies are also boosting
sales by setting minimum purchase amounts or providing incentives for
shopping online.
Patty Sachs
www.pattysachs.com
+++ [Next] +++
What Consumers Are Looking for Online This Holiday
A recent survey from CoolSavings.com asked respondents what kind of
features they look for online to help them with shopping, and 60% said they
use online coupons while 34% look for promotional offers online.
In fact, CoolSavings also found that online incentives like free shipping
and convenience would encourage consumers to shop online.
Most respondents (82%) told CoolSavings they plan to buy their 2003 holiday
season gifts offline in traditional retail stores. But comparison shopping
sites and search engines shouldn’t fret, as 81% of consumers say they
research gifts online before purchasing.
Consumers also decide to shop offline during the holidays for emotional
reasons such as wanting to shop with family and friends (16%) and wanting
to "feel" the season (32%). As part of an ongoing survey on its site,
CoolSavings surveyed 1,716 unique visitors earlier this month, with a
margin of error on the survey of +/-2.4%.
Hope for online retailers is not lost, as nearly 40% of US consumers told
BIGresearch they plan to spend about the same online this holiday season as
they did in 2002, and 7% plan to spend more online.
eMarketer projects that spending online in the US in Q4 will reach $17.8
billion, representing its highest growth rate since the 2000 holiday season.
Article at:
http://www.bizreport.com/article.php?art_id=5297
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[4] Abbey International Enterprises
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We have what you’re looking for a wide selection of sporting equipment,
training aids and sportswear for the athlete, coach and even the umpires
and referees. Team uniforms are available in a variety of colors. All of
our products are manufactured in the U.S.A. and are of the highest quality.
We also carry name-brands.
We offer low affordable prices for what you need for baseball, softball,
basketball, cheerleading, soccer, lacrosse, football, volleyball, wrestling
and more.
The business was started five years ago, mainly to give me
independence. We market through ads and word-of-mouth.
Visit us at http://www.abbeysportinggoods.com
Kabiru Adams
President
Abbey International Enterprises
1007 Hallimont Road
Baltimore, MD 21207
Tel:410-298-3116
Fax: 410-298-5662
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