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Retailers Prepare for E-Holidays »
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Retailers Prepare for E-Holidays
Compared to 2010, retailers are dedicating significantly more budget to paid search leading up to Black Friday 2011, according to November 2011 analysis from Performics. According to Performics insight, compared to the same week last year (10/30 - 11/5) the aggregate group of its retailer clients spent 88% more on paid search, with paid search clicks up 43%. This was not a standalone result: previous weeks in October saw an increase of between 46-73% for paid search and 31-47% for paid search clicks as compared to the same week the previous year. Not surprisingly, this increased competition for market share has led to higher cost-per-clicks, with the highest increase (32%) compared to the same week in 2010 being reported for the week of 10/30-11/5.
Q3 Retail E-Commerce Sales Up Y-O-Y
Retailers may be paying heed to recent e-commerce estimates: according to comScore, online retail spending reached $36.3 billion Q3, representing a 13% rise year-over-year. In fact, this is the 8th consecutive quarter of positive year-over-year growth, and 4th consecutive quarter of double-digit growth rates. According to comScore analysis, the 13% growth this quarter was primarily a function of an increase in the number of buyers (up 22%), with 74% of all internet users making at least one purchase in the quarter.
Majority View Devices as Shopping Tool
If there is indeed an uplift in holiday e-commerce, mobile device owners could be significant contributors: 3 in 5 smartphone or tablet owners plan to use their device for a range of holiday shopping purposes this year, according to [sign-up page] a report released in November by Prosper Mobile Insights. Data from the report indicates that of those respondents, 60% plan to use their device as a “mobile mall,” meaning that they will purchase products, compare prices, or conduct other similar activities on their smartphones or tablets. Meanwhile, although the majority (56.7%) will use their devices most during their planning/research stage, one-third will use them to make at least 50% of their holiday purchases.
Entertainment, Clothing & Tech to Lead Purchases
58% of smartphone or tablet owners who expect to use their device for a holiday shopping purpose plan to buy books, CDs, DVDs, Blu-ray or video games on their device, according to the report. Roughly half also plan to purchase clothing or accessories and electronics. Interestingly, some of those consumers may be buying a tablet: according to November analysis from Retrevo, 20% of tablet owners plan to buy an iPad this holiday season (compared to 10% of all respondents), while 27% of existing tablet owners plan to buy the new Amazon Kindle Fire tablet (compared to 12% of all respondent).
Other Findings
- 2 in 3 respondents to the Prosper Mobile Insights report who plan to use their device for a holiday shopping purpose are either somewhat or very likely to use their device to purchase products on Black Friday. Cyber Monday (63.5%) and the Saturday after Thanksgiving (58.6%) are the next most popular shopping days.
- Of the same group of respondents, 8.5% plan to use the Amazon app the most to help them plan their shopping for the holidays. Google (5.8%), Notes (4.0%), Shop Savvy (2.9%), and Safari (2.1%) followed.
- Amazon (18.6%) is also the app that respondents plan to use the most to purchase products for the holidays, followed distantly by eBay (6.1%) and Google (2.2%).
About the Data: The Prosper Mobile Insights survey was conducted 10/25-10/27/11 among 329 smartphone and tablet users on their devices.
