original research by 7 holiday quick tips to boost online ... · online holiday sales are expected...

7 HOLIDAY QUICK TIPSTO BOOST ONLINE SALES

Retailers still have time to make changes to their e-commerce site before the holidays hit. Here are seven retailer-tested ways to boost online sales this holiday season that won’t require months of employee time, money and resources.

Original Research by

7 HOLIDAY QUICK TIPSTO BOOST ONLINE SALES

2 E-Commerce Thought Leadership | A Report Commissioned by FedEx

The holiday season is crucial for all online retailers.

Merchants scramble all year to set the table for the November and December shopping feast. For personalized products retailer Men’s Society, 70% of its annual sales hinge on this holiday period, says Ross Patrick, digital marketing executive at Men’s Society. And even if sales are more spread out throughout the year, like at Browns Shoes Inc., where 33% of sales are holiday-related, the season is still a significant priority, says Richard Sejean, the retailer’s director of e-commerce.

And this year, online retailers can expect a record-breaking holiday sales season.

Internet Retailer estimates that U.S. shoppers will spend $119.99 billion with online retailers during the upcoming holiday shopping season of Nov. 1-Dec. 31. This is a 15.5% increase over last year, when online shoppers spent $103.88 billion online during the holiday period, according to Internet Retailer.

Online holiday sales growth of 15.5% is in line with the overall U.S.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

James L. Collier,Vice President,US Sales - West, FedEx

e-commerce industry’s growth over the last six quarters. In fact, the 15.5% growth may be slightly conservative, as U.S. e-commerce sales grew 15.7% during the first half of 2018 year over year, according to U.S. Commerce Department figures.

Part of the reason for such a strong forecast is that U.S. consumer confi-dence is at the highest level in 18 years. The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index, which is based on a survey that measures consumer senti-ment on current economic conditions and prospects for the next six months, hit 133.4 in August. This is the highest

Online holiday sales are expected to increase 15.5% in 2018

Source: Internet Retailer projection2017

$103.88billion

$119.99billion

2018

U.S. online sales in Nov. and Dec.

15% 13%


EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Online sales are expected to represent about 15% of total retail sales during the November-December holiday period, according to Internet Retailer estimates. This is even more impressive as this is higher than e-commerce’s annual average penetration, which Internet Retailer estimates was 13% for all of 2017.

This makes the holiday season even more of a key period for online merchants. With things lining up to be another stellar online holiday shopping season, online retailers need to bring their ‘A’ game. While it is likely too late for retailers to overhaul their inventory management system, or replatform their e-commerce sites, there are still plenty of low-hanging fruits retailers can deploy to ensure a happy holiday season for their bottom line.

James L. Collier Vice President, US Sales - West, FedEx

level since October 2000 and 11% higher than August 2017. An indicator above 100 signals a boost in consumers’ confidence towards the future economic situation, as a consequence of which they are less prone to save, and more inclined to spend money on major purchases in the next 12 months. Values below 100 indicate a pessimistic attitude towards future developments in the economy, possibly resulting in a tendency to save more and consume less.

What’s more, 2018 has generated strong online growth from many retail giants already. Walmart Inc., for example, says its U.S. e-commerce sales rose 40% in the second quarter compared with a year earlier.

And then there’s the fact that more consumers are buying gifts online each year. For instance, 76% of U.S. shoppers said they purchased at least 25% of their gifts online in the last holiday shopping season (November to December), according to a March 2018 Internet Retailer and Bizrate Insights survey. In the same survey conducted in March 2017, 73% said they purchased at least 25% of gifts online. Gift givers, who may have had the intention of going into a store, are often browsing retail sites online to look for gift ideas. Many consumers end up buying online if they find the perfect gift on the web in lieu of making the trek out to the store.

Holiday sales have a higher e-commerce penetration compared with the rest of the year

Source: Internet Retailer projection1. 2018 projection

Nov.-Dec. 2018 e-commerce penetration1

2017 e-commerce penetration compared with total retail sales


7 SIMPLE WAYS TO BOOST ONLINE SALES THIS HOLIDAY SEASON

7 SIMPLE WAYS TO BOOST ONLINE SALES THIS HOLIDAY SEASONTIP 1 Gift guidesOne of the easiest ways to hook shoppers into thinking about buying gifts on a retailer’s site is by offering shoppers a gift guide.

Shopping for hard-to-please family members is no easy task. So, make it easy for shoppers by creating a landing page called “holiday gifts” or “gift guide.” There, merchants should provide curated lists of products by price, such as “Great gifts under $25,” or theme, such as “Gifts for the tech geek.”

Men’s Society, for example, has tabs such as “Christmas gifts,” “Gifts for Men” and “Gifts for Women” on the upper navigation portion of its site. Plus, within those tabs it sorts its products such as “Dad gifts” or “beauty and accessory gifts.”

Men’s Society offers gift guides

for a variety of occasions, and

features them prominently on

its website.


7 HOLIDAY QUICK TIPS TO BOOST ONLINE SALESGift guides provide an opportunity for retailers to showcase products that may not be as easy to search for, or that don’t get much traction throughout the rest of the year. They also might inspire shop-pers to purchase a gift for someone else that they initially weren’t shopping for.

Furniture retailer Smart Furniture Inc. launches its gift guide in early November and uses it as a way to show how its products go together.

“Gift guides are a way for us to curate product selections for our customers,” says vice president of marketing Chris Wilson. “People often shop for furniture and decor as part of a set, or to complete a look. Gift guides are a way for us to provide customers with an entire look and feel they can shop from.”

The retailer markets its gift guide in emails and via paid social media ads. It also features it on its home page and on its blog. Smart Furniture knows that the shoppers are seeing the guide, as those products in the guide sell more,

and shoppers will call the retailer, asking about the guide, seeking advice or recommendations of products similar to featured items.

“We’ll see a strong lift in featured products during the holiday season, particularly when gift guides are featured in emails or other marketing materials,” Wilson says.

Gift guides are a missed opportunity for many retailers. Less than one-third of Internet Retailer’s Top 1000 merchants, 32%, have a give center or gift guide on their site, according to Top500Guide.com.

TIP 2 Gift sets Another merchandising tip for retailers is bundling gifts into sets.

Shoppers often perceive value in gift sets, as they often allow shoppers to get more products at a lower price

than buying each item separately. Shoppers can then give the entire set as a gift, keep a few items for themselves or divide the set to cover several people on their gift list. For merchants, sets are a good way to

Missed opportunities for retailersTop 1000 merchants that ...

Offer a digital gift guide Sell gift cards online

32% 36%

Source: Top500Guide.com


7 HOLIDAY QUICK TIPS TO BOOST ONLINE SALESmove products that perhaps aren’t selling as well, and also to increase average order value.

Benefit Cosmetics LLC offers eight to 10 gift sets each year with different themes. This holiday season, Benefit is doing a cake theme and each set is packaged in unique cake tins, because “who doesn’t love cake!” says Jenn Whipple, senior director, U.S. omnichannel marketing at Benefit Cosmetics. Also, Benefit is bundling several of its mini products in orna-ment packaging as another gift set.

“[Shoppers] are able to try new products that they might not buy otherwise,” Whipple says about what entices shoppers to buy gift sets. Plus, it makes shopping easier, she says.

“We curate the sets with the perfect complimentary products to make makeup easy and fun. Same for gift buying,” Whipple says.

Cosmetics retailer Scrubz Body also offers gift sets year-round and high-lights them around the holiday season via social media and in its newsletters, says owner Roberta Perry.

“Even though we discount the set, customers spend on average 15-20% more when the items are gift bundled already,” Perry says.

Some gift sets and gift products Scrubz Body is selling this year include a wreath made out of 2-ounce sample bottles, and a Party in a Box, which is a house-party kit.

Perry notices a spike in gift set sales as the holiday season progresses because as Dec. 25 draws near, shoppers need to complete their shopping more quickly, she says.

Between its one physical store and e-commerce site, the November– December holiday season accounts for 35-40% of Scrubz Body’s total annual sales, Perry says. For the 2018 holiday season, Perry is hoping sales will double over last year.

Benefit Cosmetics offers eight to 10 gift sets each year with different themes. This holiday season features a cake theme.

Scrubz Body offers gift sets year-round. “Customers spend on average 15-20% more when the items are gift bundled already,” says owner Roberta Perry.

45.7%


7 HOLIDAY QUICK TIPS TO BOOST ONLINE SALES

TIP 3 Emphasize omnichannelHoliday shoppers need options. Some shoppers need that gift right away and can’t wait to have it shipped. For example, if a shopper is on her way to a holiday party with her friends in mid-December, she needs to arrive with a gift in hand. Online retailers with stores should emphasize that shoppers can buy the product online now and conveniently pick it up on the way to their event.

Online retailers should have consistent messaging on their site, product-detail pages and in email marketing, not only stating their shipping cut-off dates for guaranteed delivery by Dec. 25, but also that shoppers can buy online and pick up in store quickly.

Many retailers already offer buy online pick up in store, and many shoppers use it. 67% of shoppers have used buy online, pick up in store in the last six months, according to omnichannel vendor Kibo’s March 2018 survey of 3,000 U.S. consumers. And 102 of the Top 500 retailers offer buy online pick up in store, according to Top500Guide.com. Of retail chains in the Top 1000, 45.7% of them offer buy online pick up in store.

Hibbett Sporting Goods Inc., for example, worked to have its

omnichannel offering ready in time for this holiday season.

“Holiday shoppers, we believe, are omnichannel shoppers,” says Bill Quinn, vice president of digital commerce at Hibbett.

The athletic apparel and goods retailer launched buy online pick up in store and reserve online, pick up in store at all of its approximately 1,100 stores in October.

Reserve in store is a similar service to buy online pick up in store, in which a store employee will hold the products for a shopper, who will come into the store, and then decide if she wants to make the purchase. This service is convenient for a shopper who wants to quickly try on shoes for size, but worries about the product selling out too quickly. Hibbett will hold a reserved product until close of business the

Portion of Top 1000 retail chains that offer buy online pick up in store


7 HOLIDAY QUICK TIPS TO BOOST ONLINE SALESfollowing day that the shopper made the reservation. For both buy online and reserve online, Hibbett guarantees to have the product available for shoppers in a selected store within 90 minutes.

Tapping into a shopper’s location, Hibbett also perpetually displays the nearest store to the shopper on the top of its site so shoppers know that their potential products aren’t too far away.

Quinn is especially pleased to have launched the feature before the holidays. This way, it can ensure that the omnichannel program is running smoothly before the peak season hits.

He also hopes that shoppers who buy online and pick up in store will buy more items than what they have reserved once they come into the store.

This — the attachment rate for BOPIS orders — is a key metric the retailer will track, Quinn says.

Retailers that offer buy online pick up in store, should emphasize this feature on their website and in their emails throughout the season, and especially as Dec. 25 approaches, as it is a way to scoop up extra sales.

TIP 4 Finesse your return policy As retailers know, online shoppers are clicking the buy button well before Thanksgiving. To help ease the mind of shoppers who are wary about recipients not wanting the gift, retailers should finesse their return policies. Instead of using a standard two-week or 30-day policy, merchants should consider extending returns through January.

In fact, 60% of U.S. consumers say they return holiday items during or

after January, according to logistic firm Optoro Inc’s. survey of 1,000 U.S. consumers.

Here is the breakdown:

Hibbett displays the nearest store to the shopper on the top of its site so shoppers know that their potential products aren’t too far away.

40%

51%

9%Return items Dec. 26-31

During January

After January

71%


7 HOLIDAY QUICK TIPS TO BOOST ONLINE SALESWhile of course retailers ideally don’t want shoppers to return products, having a flexible policy eases a shop-per’s mind and could help improve conversion. In fact, 42% of shoppers look at a retailer’s return policy before buying a gift, and 71% of consumers say a positive return experience greatly encourages them to shop with a merchant again, according to the Optoro survey.

Web-only merchant Overstock.com Inc. allows consumers to return items purchased Nov. 1-Dec. 31 for a full refund through Jan. 31. This helps shoppers buy gifts “with confidence,” says Jimmy Budnik, vice president of customer care.

“We understand that selecting the perfect gift for your friends and family is hard enough without having to worry about potential returns and replace-ments that may happen after the gift has been exchanged,” Budnik says.

Plus, if retailers are worried about an onslaught of products coming back, a recent survey should ease their minds. More than 80% of shoppers said they return 5% or less of products purchased online each year, according to an exclusive Internet Retailer survey of more than 1,000 shoppers in July 2018. Here’s the breakdown:

80.3% of shoppers returned 5% or less of products purchased online

12.3% of shoppers returned 6-10% 3.7% of shoppers returned 11-15% 2.4% of shoppers returned 16-25% 1.0% of shoppers returned 26%+

TIP 5 Gift card emphasis Gift cards are a popular holiday gift, especially for procrastinators.

In fact, 49% of holiday shoppers plan to give a gift card during the holidays, according to a 2017 holiday survey from consultancy Deloitte LLP.

This works out in shoppers’ favor as 61% of U.S. internet shoppers said they would like to receive a gift card as a holiday gift, according to a National Retail Federation survey in Oct. 2017.

This is a missed opportunity for many retailers as only 36% of Top

Portion of consumers who say a positive return experience greatly encourages them to shop with a merchant again


7 HOLIDAY QUICK TIPS TO BOOST ONLINE SALES1000 merchants sell gift cards online, according to Top500Guide.com.

For outdoor gear and fashion retailer Evo, gift cards are a key part of the holiday season, says Nathan Decker, Evo’s director of e-commerce.

“Gift cards are a very important part of our marketing strategy going into the holidays,” Decker says. “Gift cards are the second-most prolific item we sell and we sell more than half of the year’s volume in the month of December alone.”

In the last six years, Evo has imple-mented several strategies related to its gift cards. These tactics helped gift cards nab the No. 2 spot on the retailer’s list of most-purchased items. For instance, Evo offers both physical gift cards and digital gift cards. For both cards, Evo has various domination options and shoppers can include a personalized message with the gift cards. Digital gift cards are attractive, as shoppers receive them immediately. For physical gift cards, shoppers can design the card, and Evo will hand-write a custom message onto the card packaging.

During the holidays, Evo promotes gift cards on every page of its e-commerce site and prominently within its gift guide, Decker says. The merchant also

features gift cards in a banner on its site’s search results page. Evo puts messaging about gift cards in nearly all of its holiday-related emails, including a dedicated email send featuring “last minute gifts,” which prominently features gift cards.

The retailer promotes gift cards from Cyber weekend all the way through Christmas, Decker says. Evo also heavily promotes its digital gift cards after shipping cut-off dates.

“Gift card sales get increasingly elevated messaging as we approach Christmas, and gift card sales peak on the days just prior to Christmas,” Decker says.

Exotic flower retailer The Bouqs sees a surge in its gift card sales over the holiday season, says Anna Wilhelmsen,

‘Gift cards are the second-most

prolific item we sell and we sell more than half

of the year’s volume in the month of December alone.’

— Nathan Decker, director of

e-commerce, Evo


7 HOLIDAY QUICK TIPS TO BOOST ONLINE SALES

head of brand partnerships at The Bouqs. In general, The Bouqs does not heavily market its gift cards, and the holiday season is the only time of year when it amplifies this product offering, such as featuring it in emails, she says.

“[Gift cards are] great for last-minute gift ideas and are a more ‘wrappable’

gift than our typical floral offerings,” says Anna Wilhelmsen, head of brand partnerships at The Bouqs.

The Bouqs notices an uptick of gift card sales later in the holiday season, which is also when it markets them more as a last-minute gift, Wilhelmsen says.

TIP 6 Bolster the customer contact center With increased traffic and increased purchases during the holiday season, there’s no doubt shoppers will have more questions than usual.

Retailers should ensure that some of their seasonal hires are dedicated to customer service. For example, 1-800-Flowers.com Inc. is hiring 8,000 seasonal employees this year across all of its brands, including Harry and David, Cheryl’s Cookies and The Popcorn Factory, for positions in its call center, as well as its distribution and fulfillment center operations, plus retail stores.

Similar to making it easy for shoppers to know that retailers offer buy online

pick up in store, merchants should also make their contact numbers easy to find. If shoppers have a question, they don’t want to dig through the website to find help. Retailers should make finding help easy, and prominently display a number or live chat button.

Evo perpetually keeps its help center phone number at the top of each page in the banner, even above its logo.

“[Gift cards are] great for last-minute gift ideas and are a more ‘wrappable’ gift than our typical floral offerings.”

— Anna Wilhelmsen, head of brand partnerships, The Bouqs

Evo perpetually keeps its help center phone number at the top of each page in the banner, even above its logo.

25%Portion of Evo’s customer service inquiries that come through live chat or SMS


7 HOLIDAY QUICK TIPS TO BOOST ONLINE SALES“When customers have questions, we don’t want them to have to look very far to find a way to reach us,” says Justin Courtney, Evo’s customer care manager. “Our team of gear experts is ready to help.”

The retailer even expanded on its customer service options to include texting, in addition to offering shopper help via phone calls, chat, email and Facebook Messenger.

The link to send Evo an SMS message appears on the contact customer care page when a shopper is visiting the site from a mobile device. The shopper is given the option to call, text, chat or email evo.

When a shopper taps on the text link, the shopper’s default messaging app opens, and Evo’s customer service number is automatically filled in. A customer service agent will reply to the message if it is during business hours; otherwise, the shopper will receive an automatic reply and an agent will respond when available.

On Evo’s side, a customer service agent receives on-site chats, text messages and Facebook messages in the same online portal — via messaging vendor Quiq — so it makes no difference to the agent how the shopper sends the message. In the peak selling season of December, Evo’s customer service agents receive 1,100 contacts via Quiq in a week, Courtney says.

“The holiday season is huge for our business,” Courtney says. “We want to make contacting us as from our website easy as possible, whether that be via phone, chat, SMS or email.”

Shoppers seem to like the new options as 25% of customer service inquiries come through live chat or SMS now, Courtney says.

TIP 7 Prioritize performance During the peak holiday season, web traffic at many retailers is hitting its high point for the year and that means site performance should be top-of-mind.

Performance management and maintenance is a never-ending job for retailers. But its importance is even more critical during the holiday season. If a site crashes or is taking too long to


7 HOLIDAY QUICK TIPS TO BOOST ONLINE SALESload, shoppers will go to a competing website to get their gift.

In fact, according to an Internet Retailer and Bizrate Insights survey of 2,000 consumers in October 2017, nearly a quarter of consumers say they aren’t likely to circle back to an e-commerce site if it had crashed on the first visit. Plus, less than half of responders say they are only “somewhat” likely to return.

During Cyber Monday 2017, a large apparel chain’s site crashed after traffic surged 218% higher than a typical Monday in November, according to web measurement firm SimilarWeb Ltd. data. While down, shoppers received a message stating that the retailer was “experiencing more traffic than usual.” The page offered a phone number to call to place an order. The retailer extended the sale it was running until midnight, an extra 12 hours, because of the downtime.

Similarly, on Thanksgiving 2017, a different fast-fashion apparel chain went down for an hour because of heavy traffic that was 163% higher than a typical Thursday in November, according to SimilarWeb data. The apparel retailer displayed a splash screen explaining that the launch of Black Friday deals led to the “fashionable waiting time” for the site to return.

Retailers should prepare for the surges in traffic to their sites during these critical periods. To ensure good perfor-mance for visitors, retailers can employ a number of tactics, such as reducing website calls to third-party vendor services, personalization or analytics specifically during the peak period, having a plan B, such as a virtual waiting room, and ensuring their vendors are prepared for the peak period and caching content on their site.

Retailer Discount School Supply is working with performance vendor Yotta to help manage its traffic and speed up its website, says Peter Walter, director of e-commerce marketing at Excelligence Learning Corp., which owns Discount School Supply. The retailer is still tweaking and A/B testing how to best improve site speed.

Images are often a culprit of a slow-loading site. Retailers should ensure that the images on their site are big enough for a shopper to see the details, and no bigger. Optimizing images is

NEARLY A QUARTERof consumers say they aren’t likely to circle back to an e-commerce site if it had crashed on the first visit


7 HOLIDAY QUICK TIPS TO BOOST ONLINE SALESpopular tactic used to shave seconds off of load times.

If retailers choose not to slim down their sites for a year-round timeframe, they can choose to limit the number of calls to web-based services only during peak times. For example, if a social media inte-gration, such as pulling in the retailer’s Instagram account photos, has slowed a merchant’s site in the past, the retailer might want to consider eliminating that element during the peak season.

Retailers also can contact their vendor service providers to ensure they have the server infrastructure available to handle the increased load times. Duke Tung, managing director at skincare retailer EDCskincare, says most of his vendors are fully staffed on the holiday weekend to make sure sites run smoothly. The retailer uses many third-party tools, including its shopping cart and its newsletter service.

If a retailer knows that it may not be able to handle the increased traffic, it can invest in a “virtual waiting room” which limits the traffic to the site during a peak period. Even though the retailer is preventing shoppers from entering the site, it is maintaining the good performance for the shoppers on its site, and typically giving the waiting shopper an estimate of how long it is until she can get in.

Retail chain Harvey Nichols, for example, used virtual waiting room technology from Queue-ion Black Friday. “We switched on the virtual waiting room during Black Friday, to make sure we had insurance against failures on our online shop,” says Ziggy Fried, head of engineering and product development at Harvey Nichols. “Using the system as a safety net, provided us with the possibility of evaluating our traffic.”

Even if site errors occur, merchants can work to appease shoppers by extending sales or offering loyalty members extra points that they can put towards future purchases.

The holiday season is nearly here and online retailers need to provide a stellar experience to shoppers. For retailers looking to squeeze more out of this ever-important sales period, they should consider all these easy-to-implement tips. l

‘We switched on the virtual waiting room during Black Friday, to make sure we had insurance against failures on our online shop.’

— Ziggy Fried, head of engineering and

product development, Harvey Nichols

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original research by 7 holiday quick tips to boost online ... · online holiday sales are expected...

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