I’ve been in the Etail space for just over 10 years now, and have been through just as many holiday selling seasons.  Historically, prep for the holidays begins towards the end of the summer – ensuring your media placements are locked up, product selections identified and placed on reserve / contract, photography in place for holiday products, fulfillment centers are ready for the increase in demand, and customer support is increased to handle the load of inbound phone calls and consumer emails.  Actually, that’s just the tip of the iceberg when getting ready for the holidays . . .

As an avid daily reader of Internetretailer.com, I was anxious to see the news about Shop.org‘s release of the “State of Retailing Online Profitability, Economy and Multichannel” (research performed by Forrester) released last week.

A few other “prep” items for your consideration:

1.  Create a STRICT 3-month rolling promotion and merchandising calendar – and stick to it!
Last-minute changes will always happen, but the more prepared you are, the quicker you can react and insure a seamless consumer experience.

2.  Make sure that your site has the horsepower it needs to get through the holiday season.
Though many sites are load-balanced for reliability, I’m still surprised as to how many top Etailers don’t perform stringent load-testing against anticipated holiday traffic.  A reasonable investment in load-testing allows you to understand your systems’ maximum capabilities, and gives you time now to make changes so that you don’t lose that precious revenue.

3.  If you have new staff, make sure that they are trained on what to expect during the holiday season.
Many employees new to the Etail scene have no idea as to just how daunting getting through the holidays can be.  It’s imperative to establish expectations up front, create contingency plans based on “what if” scenarios, and also prepare the staff for the rush of post-holiday traffic.

4.  Keep tabs on your brand / online store through Social Media tools and automated alerts.
This year we’ve seen a massive rise in the adoption of social media tool usage such as Facebook, Digg, Reddit, and the promotion of blog content through many channels.  Monitoring communication about your company during the holidays is crucial to insure word of mouth influence is positive, and also provides you with the ability to respond to negative issues – before they spiral out of control.  Do not underestimate the conversations flowing through the Social Media space now – embrace them, and utilize the feedback to make your online store offerings even stronger.

5.  Scale your organic search marketing efforts as you scale your paid search marketing efforts.
Many retailers view PPC marketing as the “be all, end all.”  While PPC marketing can demonstrate very strong ROI, organic SEO is not to be underestimated.  In fact, it is absolutely imperative that your organization prioritizes organic link building opportunities as an ongoing marketing tactic – especially as inbound links lose credibility as they age.  You may be thinking, “I have a ton of inbound links from my affiliate program(s).”  Yes, you have inbound links, but they are most likely ALL coming through a 3rd party such as LinkShare or ShareASale, and not DIRECTLY to you.  So, for all of the work you’ve done to build up a large affiliate base, keep in mind that those inbound links will all appear to come from your affiliate provider (unless you have some very special affiliate linking strategies in place).

I do want to take a few moments and look at a handful of the metrics that came out of the Shop.org study:

“Shopping cart abandonment rate 59%”
As Forrester polled 125 online retailers, the average cart abandonment rate was 59%.  That seems high to me, especially in 2008, as I’ve observed MUCH lower cart abandonment rates for clients who’s data I have access to.  As this is an average, some were better, and some were worse than the 59% level.  If you’re on the high side, and again, I consider 59% to be high, you need to take a hard look at what you’re NOT providing to your consumers and address it RIGHT NOW.

“First-page bounce rate 28%”
Again, I need to keep in mind that this is an average.  Let’s say this average is the “norm.”  If you’ve executed your online marketing strategy correctly this year, the quality of your traffic and their intent to purchase should be reflected in your page bounce rates.  If I lose 28% of my traffic on the first page of the site they view – I am doing something WRONG.  Effectively, over 1/4 off all of the web site traffic coming to sites is non-qualified.  If you base your sales forecasts on traffic growth vs. conversion rate, you need to go ahead and drop your conversion rate by +25% to accommodate for page/site abandonment.

But wait, there’s another way to handle this situation – FIX IT! Survey your customers NOW with site exit polls and email marketing to find out what your consumers feel you’re missing.  So many marketers use fantastic tools like email marketing for outbound communication, when it really needs to be a 2-way communication path.  You’re running out of time to bring your bounce rates down, and your customers have more online shopping options than ever in 2008.  How many people do you notice entering a retail store, and then walk right back out without looking at anything?  Not many – as physical retailers have something to offer most everyone.  That is a strategy that must translate online.

“Web site availability 99%”
This is an absolutely RIDICULOUS statistic.  That’s over 3 1/2 days of downtime PER YEAR.  Strive for a solution that provides 99.9% – roughly 3-4 HOURS of downtime in a year (hopefully scheduled maintenance on your part).  Local physical stores do not typically close their doors for an hour (or days) due to too many shoppers, and that real-world experience HAS to translate online.

Holiday planning SHOULD be coming to a close for many Etailers.  It’s now time to execute all of the planning you’ve worked so hard on all year long.  With gas prices still high, a troubled economy, and consumers planning to spend less on holiday gifts this year, it is time for the rise of the Etailers.  You have time, but the clock is ticking . . .

Matthew Brown
MarketNet, Inc.

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