'˜Tis the Season to Be Shopping!
Posted 7th Oct, 2007
This Christmas promises to be a booming season for e-tailers, as year-on-year data shows a steady increase in the transfer of purchasing from high streets to the Web.
The key to winning consumer loyalty is to provide a really engaging online experience. The days of rudimentary eCommerce capabilities have long been replaced with technically savvy WebStores that boast real-time in-store stock reporting, competitive pricing and first-class presentation.
Last year MySpace proved to be a major new source of product referrals and recommendations for consumers, and the same trend is set to continue this Christmas.
Tom Keane, NitroSell President, explains, “Customers now are much more Web-savvy and know the best deals around. Christmas represents a very significant proportion of sales and operating profits for retailers. The key to successful online selling can be attributed to clear navigation, simple usability, customer reviews, product tracking and secure payment systems.”
Another important factor is knowing your demographic audience. The 18-50 age bracket represents heavy shoppers - an audience of consumers whose Christmas sales account for three quarters of total purchases. Their loyalties lie in WebStore that are highly interactive, display product comparisons and online gift finders. Light consumers, on the other hand, represent the 50-plus age group, whose online spending amounts to a quarter of total purchases. These groups of customers prefer simple navigation and easy-to-read content. Consequently, retailers need to adapt their WebStores to suit the specific requirements of their market audience.