Ecommerce business owners need not fret this holiday season, despite the controversy of whether the economy is already getting back on its feet or not. Internet retailers remain hopeful that online shopping is continually growing and that a boost in sales can still be expected, regardless of the downturn in the economy.
For example, Colin Sebastian of Lazard Capital Marketing believes that this year’s fourth quarter will have an estimate of 10-15% growth in sales as compared last year. Another survey indicated that most consumers plan to do their shopping online instead of going to stores’ physical locations: 49% of consumers plan to shop at marketplaces such as Amazon and eBay, while another 41% will start with search engines–67% of which prefer Google and 19% favor Yahoo! Higher acquisition costs are to be expected by ecommerce owners because of higher marketplace commissions, and paid search ads which experience a surge during the holidays.
Strategies to boost the ecommerce economy include free shipping coupons, focus on social networking, and decrease in shopping cart abandonment. More than three quarters, or approximately 85%, of online retailers will offer free shipping promotions just for the holiday season. About 27% of retailers will offer free shipping on selected items at selected times, 26% will give free shipping on selected products throughout the season, and another 13% vows to offer unrestricted free shipping at selected times for the entirety of the holiday season.
Boosting sales by focusing on social networking includes using texting as a means of promoting sales and easy shopping cart access, and improving traffic by including hyperlinks that link directly to the products. Facebook and Twitter are the top contending social networking sites that ecommerce owners will be using to market extensive social media plans.
Though most consumers said that they will probably spend the same amount as last year, they still prefer online searching for holiday gifts. Internet retailers can use this as an advantage, allowing them to capture sales before other retailers do. The high influx of shopping cart abandonment is due to the increased volume of browsers and waiters, meaning consumers who’d rather use the Internet for comparison or simply wait for the conditioned sales after Thanksgiving.
For the owners of ecommerce sites, there really isn’t any need to worry that online shopping will suffer this year. By consistently employing social media marketing and search engine optimization strategies, as well as offering consumer-friendly promotions, shoppers will still prefer to shop online for its convenience and hassle-free quality.
