Performance Index: Holiday season finishes strong

January 9, 2014 by Leave a Comment

The final results are in from the holiday season, and merchants in the MarketLive Performance Index fared very well indeed. Merchants achieved traffic and revenue gains of more than 15%, and average order size grew a substantial 6.1% — suggesting that deep discounting isn’t always the key to holiday sales growth.

Additionally, merchants in the Index outperformed the industry at large, which notched a 10% sales gain overall, according to measurement firm comScore. The results demonstrate that small- to mid-sized merchants held their own against the mass merchants whose revenues account for the majority of online sales overall.

Holiday sales data from MarketLive

The results also revealed potential areas of improvement for 2014. Both the add-to-cart rate and conversion rate ended the season a tenth of a percentage point lower than in 2013 after lagging in the final days before Christmas and in the first rush of post-season sales. To reverse the trend in 2014, merchants must do more to capitalize on increased traffic if they want to achieve even greater revenue growth. The 3% increase in cart abandonment further eroded the benefit of traffic gains, suggesting merchants must do more to compel shoppers to become brand customers, using whatever touchpoint they prefer.

In our upcoming 2014 trends report, we’ll examine the key initiatives that will help merchants achieve these goals. Among them:

From mobile presence to mobile competence. Our survey of eCommerce sites during the holidays revealed that many merchants have a long way to go when it comes to offering truly effective mobile touchpoints. While most brands have mobile offerings, many are rudimentary efforts that faintly echoed the marketing and merchandising campaigns of the desktop browser Web sites. Instead, regardless of the technical sophistication of their mobile offerings, merchants must customize content and products to take into account shoppers’ situational priorities and present relevant context. MarketLive merchant Armani Exchange presented mobile shoppers with a streamlined experience that included gift guides by price. Email signup was prominently integrated into the presentation so that mobile browsers could sign up to receive special holiday offers, while sharing tools enabled shoppers to post favorite items with ease.

Mobile example from Armani Exchange

Making it personal. Personalization as a concept has existed for years, but the tools now exist for merchants of all sizes to present shoppers with an experience tailored to their preferences and purchase histories and enhanced by individualized customer service. By delivering wholly unique brand interactions, merchants can set their offerings apart from mass discounters and create long-lasting customer relationships. During the holidays, brand manufacturer Carter’s followed up in-store purchases with an invitation to submit a customer review and enter to win a gift card. The message additionally gives shoppers further ways to connect with the brand via social media, and promotes gift card purchase — especially relevant for the holiday season — as well as including store information for the local outlet.

Personalized email example from Carter's

How did your holidays wrap up, and how are the results influencing your priorities for 2014?

Filed under Analytics, Client Innovations, Email Marketing, Mobile Commerce, Seasonal Selling Tagged with 2013 Holidays, MarketLive Performance Index

Riding the second wave: post-season sales

December 23, 2013 by Leave a Comment

While the holiday gift-buying season is wrapping up, the next shopping frenzy is just about to begin. Post-season sales and gift card redemption purchases are poised to fuel a busy leadup to the New Year — and data suggests that consumers will start this wave of spending earlier than ever.

Measurement firm comScore reported that in 2012, online sales on Christmas Day itself rose by 36% to $288 million — not a huge sum compared with billion-dollar holiday events like Black Friday, but a significant opportunity nonetheless. Overall, online sales for the first quarter have topped $50 billion for the past two years, according to comScore, signaling that merchants mustn’t let their focus lapse after the peak fourth quarter.

To kick off the post-season, merchants should:

Balance email promotions for Christmas Day. Many merchants thank shoppers for their support in a year-end email that has no commercial strings attached. But with shoppers increasingly logging on immediately after the gifts under the tree have been opened, merchants must strike a new balance with their messaging — whether by scheduling a second message to highlight the kickoff of post-season sales, or by subtly combining the two functions, as Totes-Isotoner did last year. The MarketLive merchant positioned its 50% offer as a thank-you gift to its customers.

Christmas email example from Totes

Spotlight recent favorites and exclusives on the eCommerce site. The fresh wave of shoppers visiting merchant sites is likely to include recipients of gift cards or gifts to exchange who aren’t already familiar with the brand. That’s why, in addition to crucial customer service information, merchants should spotlight popular products and brand exclusives to tantalize them into purchasing. Showcasing top gift picks from the recent holiday season, top-rated products, or trending items on social networking sites such as Pinterest demonstrates the breadth of the brand’s offering, as well as providing endorsements from other customers.

Be prepared for a social rush. Social media users rely on that channel to interact with brands for customer service: nearly half have relied on “social care,” according to NM Incite, and 30% of consumers prefer to access customer service via social media than the phone. A positive customer service experience can lead to a boost in word-of-mouth recommendations: shoppers who use social networks for customer service are three times as likely to recommend a brand after a successful interaction, according to NM Incite. So it behooves merchants to staff up for instant response during the post-season sales rush, as shoppers flock online in search of information about returns and exchanges and gift card redemption.

Merchants should even consider proactively posting customer service information on social networks, boosting efficiency and convenience. MarketLive merchant Figi’s anchors a link to customer service information at the top of its Facebook timeline page, providing users of the social network direct access to a searchable set of frequently-asked questions, along with the ability to ask a question directly online.

Facebook customer service example from Figi's

We have a lot of great content planned in 2014 — starting with a MarketLive Performance Index wrapup of holiday season sales and a look ahead at the trends set to shape online commerce in 2014. Stay tuned, and meantime, best wishes for a prosperous holiday!

Filed under Client Innovations, Email Marketing, Seasonal Selling, Social Commerce Tagged with 2013 Holidays

Performance Index: merchants well-positioned for final holiday push

December 20, 2013 by Leave a Comment

The clock is ticking down on the holiday season, and the latest data from the MarketLive Performance Index indicates that merchants are beginning their final push well-positioned to see sustained growth.

In the week of December 9, which began with “Green Monday” (the last Monday in December with at least 10 days before Christmas), Performance Index merchants saw revenue gains of almost 30%, thanks in part to a traffic increase of 23%. Conversion rose by 3.4%, and the average order size outpaced last year’s by 3.5%, again suggesting that merchants are winning sales without resorting to constant bargain-basement pricing.

Combined with the record gains achieved during Black Friday and Cyber Monday, the latest strong results put merchants on track to end the season with substantial sales growth. Cumulative season-to-date revenue is 30% higher than last year, despite the shortened season, and conversion is up more than 6%, while average order size is more than 2% higher than last year.

Holiday data from the MarketLive Performance Index

For many merchants, the deadline is nigh for delivery by Christmas Eve via ground shipping — so the trick for sustaining revenue gains through the end of the season will be to encourage continue spending despite this logistical hurdle. Tactics merchants can adopt include:

Highlighting in-stock items. Merchants should flag items that are in-stock, both for online purchase and for pickup or purchase in stores — enabling shoppers to zero in on the gifts that can make it under the tree in time.

Pairing a collection of in-stock gift finds with a discount on expedited shipping provides online buyers with a compelling reason to complete their purchases immediately. For merchants with physical store outlets, enabling online browsers to view items that qualify for in-store pickup before Christmas at a location near them smooths the online-offline purchase process.

MarketLive merchant Helzberg Diamonds promotes “green truck” items that are guaranteed to arrive on time if purchased by December 23. An icon and shipping estimate are provided on the product page, with a key explaining the fulfillment classification system and displaying estimated delivery dates for each.

Guaranteed delivery promotion from Helzberg

Product page example from Helzberg

Shipping cutoffs explained, from Helzberg

Easing the last-minute store rush. Merchants with physical store locations should move links to the store locator out of the customer service section and into the spotlight. They should additionally bolster standard store-locator information with promotions of relevant online content and services. Gap’s store locator for shoppers browsing the eCommerce site on their desktop or laptop displays not only location-specific hours, but promotes the ability to reserve items online for purchase in-store, along with a curated gift guide showcasing tailored gift picks. On the mobile site, Gap’s store locator — always anchored prominently on the home page — calls out holiday hours in the “Special Hours” section.

Store locator example from Gap

Mobile store locator from Gap

Boosting e-gift card visibility. As discussed in last week’s post, merchants should promote gift card options ubiquitously, in locations that go far beyond the holiday gift guide section. And in the final week, gift cards should receive pride of place on the home page, with merchants highlighting swift delivery via email and flexibility as main selling points. And on the gift card product page, merchants should ensure that options for physical versus virtual gift cards are clearly delineated, so that shoppers wishing to purchase cards for delivery by Christmas are sure to pick the right one.  MarketLive merchant dELiA*s promotes delivery timeframes along with gift card options on its home page. The gift card product page has been updated to reiterate the cutoff dates and delineates the two separate ordering processes for physical versus virtual cards.

Gift card promotion from dELiA*s

Gift card product page from dELiA*s


What last-minute tactics are you employing to keep shoppers engaged through the end of the season?

Filed under Acquire, Convert & Retain, Analytics, Client Innovations, Connected Commerce, Seasonal Selling Tagged with 2013 Holidays, Gift cards, MarketLive Performance Index

Performance Index: Cyber Monday week sees major gains

December 13, 2013 by Leave a Comment

As the short holiday season hits the halfway mark, the news is encouraging for specialty and niche merchants. According to weekly data from the MarketLive Performance Index, Cyber Monday and the week that followed continued the Thanksgiving weekend trend of increased traffic and improved performance metrics, driving overall revenues 32% higher compared with the same week last year.

Furthermore, the data suggests that even amidst heavy discounting, merchants are making strong gains. For one, while traffic for December 2 – December 9 grew by 17%, revenue grew even more substantially, suggesting that individual buyers are purchasing more than last year.  The conversion rate increased by 2.4%. Meantime, the average order size compared with last year held steady, suggesting merchants are successfully wooing shoppers without necessarily discounting steeply.

MarketLive Performance Index data

The only performance challenge merchants face is with the add-to-cart rate, which plummeted nearly a full percentage point, by more than 8%, compared with the prior week. With offers flying fast and furious, shoppers are comparison shopping and waiting for the right deal to entice them to finalize purchases. While overall the add-to-cart rate for the season is up by 11.3%, merchants should redouble their efforts to convert shoppers to buyers. Among the quick tactics to try:

Promote limited-time offers beyond the obvious spots.  Merchants should include notices about free shipping offers or price discounts in the cart, whether via a global banner or a promotional fill slot. But even before shoppers reach that milestone on the path to purchase, merchants should flag promotions and direct shoppers to relevant information. Locations to consider include:

  • The drop-down global cart. As we’ve noted previously, graphics or images in motion are more likely to capture our attention than static site content, so including promotions in this automated display stand a better chance of being seen.

  • In secondary navigation. When used, a left-hand column usually exposes the depth of products on offer, whether via  a detailed sub-category list or by using a guided-navigation-style list of attributes shoppers can access to resolve problems. But it’s also an opportunity to reiterate the latest promotion and its end date, so that shoppers can access details from wherever on the site they roam.

  • On product pages. With consumers increasingly accessing eCommerce sites via interior pages after being directed there from search engines, it’s crucial for merchants to feature deals right alongside product content.MarketLive merchant Armani Exchange highlights current discounts in red on the product page, calling out the free shipping thresholds and “deal of the week” merchandise.

Promotion example from Armani Exchange

Fine-tune triggered emails. As we’ve reported previously, nearly three-quarters of merchants don’t yet have a triggered email program in place to attempt to recapture sales after consumers leave the site.  While it’s too late to institute such a program from scratch right now, merchants with existing abandoned-cart triggered emails should consider revamping them slightly. The messages should include:

  • Plenty of product content. Merchants should incorporate more than just the image of the product the shopper left in the cart, but should take the opportunity to provide a longer product story. A comprehensive description, paired with how-to videos demonstrating usage and even a buying guide matching the product category, can win over hesitant shoppers by helping them envision how the product might fit or feel.

  • Abundant customer service links. Merchants should put contact information front and center in cart-recovery messages, with links to product guarantees and delivery timelines that help shoppers what they need.

  • Social connectors. The ability to connect to communities of followers on social outposts may help shoppers find lifestyle content that convinces them to commit to a purchase from the brand.

Clothier French Connection puts it all together in its cart abandonment email. In addition to displaying a picture of the abandoned item and the means to link directly to checkout, the message includes a sizable section describing customer service and displaying contact information. A series of links at the bottom of the message directs shoppers to connect via social media.
Abandoned cart email from French Connection

What tactics are you using to drive continued engagement through the holiday season?

Filed under Acquire, Convert & Retain, Analytics, Email Marketing, Seasonal Selling Tagged with 2013 Holidays, Cart abandonment, MarketLive Performance Index

The 3 locations merchants overlook when promoting gift cards

December 10, 2013 by Leave a Comment

As the holiday season rounds the bend into the final fortnight, merchants would do well to step up promotion of gift cards. As we previously reported, gift card sales are poised to soar again this year, with more than half of shoppers reporting they’ll turn to gift cards for at more than one in 10 recipients on their list, according to the MarketLive Consumer Shopping Survey. Industry-wide, the National Retail Federation reports that 8 in 10 shoppers will purchase  a gift card this season, and the amount spent on gift cards will jump 4% compared with last year.

Given the importance of gift cards, most merchants by now know to promote their offerings prominently, and to pre-empt customer service enquiries by clearly spelling out delivery options redemption policies. But while there’s almost always a home page link to gift card purchasing and mention of gift cards in email campaigns, there are several key junctures merchants are missing when it comes to gift-card messaging.

As shoppers become increasingly desperate to find gifts for the final names on their lists, and as order deadlines for items to arrive in time pass, merchants should use every means available to promote gift cards. Tweak site presentation and promotions now to highlight gift cards:

In transactional email. Recent buyers are low-hanging fruit for merchants; they’re already familiar with the brand and have committed to purchasing. And as we’ve reported earlier, the majority of consumers now expect to receive promotional information along with order and delivery confirmation emails, according to a study from the E-Tailing Group and MyBuys. Merchants should remind these customers that after scoring a valuable gift find the first time around, they can take care of other recipients on their list with ease and convenience using gift cards.

Via social media. It’s one thing to post a status update or Tweet reminding followers to pick up last-minute gift cards; it’s another to anchor gift cards into the social experience. Merchants should make gift card information — or better yet, direct gift card purchase — one of the main links from the Timeline page in Facebook, and include a direct link to gift card purchasing from Twitter. Merchants can even get creative and build Pinterest pinboards around top items for gift-card recipients.

MarketLive merchant Sport Chalet has anchored a link to gift cards from a prominent spot on the brand’s Facebook Timeline. Followers can buy either a physical card or an e-gift card directly from within Facebook, upping convenience by enabling them to complete gift purchases without leaving the social environment.

Gift card promotion from Sport Chalet

On product pages. While most merchants include prominent promotion of gift cards on their eCommerce site home pages and in holiday gift guides, many shoppers now enter brand sites directly on product pages via search engine results. A text link in the global header doesn’t suffice to alert these incoming visitors to gift card options; merchants should incorporate a promotion within the center content area — if need be, by using a cross-sell slot, as ThinkGeek does with an anchored “Gift Certificates” link.

Gift certificate promotion from ThinkGeek

Where and how are you promoting gift cards this holiday season?

Filed under Acquire, Convert & Retain, Client Innovations, Seasonal Selling, Social Commerce Tagged with Gift cards

Performance Index: Holiday season off to strong start

December 6, 2013 by Leave a Comment

The initial results are in from the Thanksgiving and Black Friday weekend, and merchants have reason to rejoice. Data from the MarketLive Performance Index, which reports aggregate data from leading specialty merchants, shows year over year sales gains of more than 50% on both Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday, with Saturday and Sunday each earning revenue growth of more than 40%.

The increased sales were driven by double-digit growth in visits throughout the weekend that peaked with a 44% jump in traffic on Black Friday. Improvements in the add-to-cart rate, conversion rate and abandonment rate indicated that merchants have fine-tuned offerings to present relevant products and offers that spur shoppers to become buyers.

Performance Index data for Black Friday weekend

These results are especially heartening after indications that the weekend brought lean results industry-wide. The National Retail Federation estimated that overall sales in stores and online totaled $57.4 billion — a 1.7% drop compared with the organization’s 2012 estimate of $59.1 billion for the same weekend. Online, the news was brighter, with measurement firm comScore reporting revenue gains of 21% for Thanksgiving and 5% for Black Friday, when online sales topped $1 billion for the day.

The even stronger results from the MarketLIve Index suggest that small- to mid-sized merchants are winning buyers without necessarily resorting to the deep-discounting strategies adopted by leading mass merchants whose combined revenues make up the lion’s share of the industry results. By presenting shoppers with comprehensive product and lifestyle content, building a community of like-minded enthusiasts, showcasing superior customer service and encouraging repeat sales and long-term loyalty, merchants are successfully competing with Amazon and other top online destinations, even during this ultra-competitive season.

To continue outperforming the industry for the remainder of the season, merchants should:

Encourage repeat engagement. Many merchants we surveyed over the peak buying weekend had launched extended initiatives spotlighting one product or deal per day. Such campaigns not only entice shoppers to continually return to the site and potentially make additional purchases as new offers are revealed, but they also provide buzz-worthy fodder for sharing via social media. MarketLive merchant World Market launched its “24 Days of Deals” over the weekend, with a daily discount presented via an Advent-calendar type layout on the eCommerce site.

Holiday promotion from World Market

Entice social followers into deeper interaction. Social media can be an effective tool for driving new visitors to brand sites, and during this peak season, savvy merchants are capitalizing on the buzz on social outposts to encourage further engagement from followers. Among the tactics in play:

  • Sweepstakes that allow shoppers to enter daily or earn extra entries when they share products or offers with friends

  • User-generated content submissions that express the brand’s identity

  • Direct purchasing via Facebook — especially for gift cards

  • Email signup via Facebook

MarketLive merchant dELiA*s offers Facebook followers the opportunity to sign up to receive email updates without leaving the social network environment. Followers can even register using their profile information, further smoothing the signup process. By promising that subscribers will “always be the first” to learn about new products and promotions, dELiA*s appeals to social followers accustomed to receiving constant updates and being instantly in-the-know. By subscribing to email alerts, followers will receive word of brand offerings even if they happen to miss an individual post or Tweet.

Social email signup from Delia's

Stay tuned to the blog for further holiday results throughout the season. Meantime, how was your Black Friday weekend, and what tactics are seeing the most success for your brand?

Filed under Acquire, Convert & Retain, Client Innovations, Seasonal Selling, Social Commerce Tagged with 2013 Holidays, MarketLive Performance Index

Last-minute Black Friday prep: 2 reasons why mobile is the top priority

November 21, 2013 by Leave a Comment

The juggernaut that is the Thanksgiving-Black Friday-CyberMonday shopping weekend is looming just one week away, and merchants and industry watchers alike are preparing for a holiday kickoff blitz. With the clock ticking down, one priority in particular is emerging as a worthy focal point for last-minute preparations: mobile offerings.
Recently-released research shows that mobile is poised to play a more crucial role than even the hype has predicted, for both online and offline shoppers alike. Among the reasons merchants should spend the next week fine-tuning their offerings:

Smartphones are now the primary starting point for shoppers. This fall, smartphones crossed a crucial threshold, becoming the touchpoint most often used for retail interactions, according to measurement firm comScore. Since August, smartphones have owned the majority of minutes spent interacting with retail brands, and in September, the percentage was 7% higher than desktop. That’s a relatively small gap in terms of percentage points — but it’s a significant reversal compared with earlier this year, when desktop held a 32% lead. And when taken together, tablets and smartphones dominate, grabbing 59% of minutes in September.

Mobile usage data from comScore

To entice consumer starting their shopping journeys via mobile, merchants should enact these last-minute tweaks:

  • Spotlight mobile in email. While it’s important for merchants to incorporate mobile promotions across all available touchpoints, email is especially crucial for the upcoming holiday kickoff. For example, , according to measurement firm Nielsen — a ripe opportunity for merchants to both promote products and discounts and the means to continue engagement throughout the season on mobile devices. Even if merchants’ email messaging isn’t optimized for small screens (and it should be), the content should prominently promote mobile offerings, whether they be apps, SMS sale alerts, or an especially robust store locator on the mobile Web site.

  • Double down on mobile paid search. Any merchants with wiggle room in the budget at this late date should focus their paid search investments on targeted messaging for mobile. The percentage of clicks on Product Listing Ads from mobile devices jumped in Q3 to nearly a third of the total, with smartphones garnering fully one in five PLA clicks, according to The Search Agency. And while tablet cost-per-click rates now rival desktop pricing, smartphone rates still lag, making smartphone-targeted listings a relative bargain in the competition to engage shoppers at the outset of their shopping journey.

Mobile search ad CPC data from The Search Agency

Mobile can play a huge role in store sales — in more ways than one. Across the board, analysts anticipate that mobile devices will see heavy shopping use while consumers are roaming physical store outlets. The MarketLive Consumer Shopping Survey found that more than half of shoppers intend to look for coupons or other discounts and to research competitive pricing while shopping in stores, and more than 40% plan to use their phones as research tools to look up ratings and reviews and in-depth product information.

MarketLive Consumer Shopping Survey data on smartphone usage

While the prospect of this price-comparison shopping has long terrified merchants, as we’ve previously discussed, the greatest likelihood is that consumers who “showroom” will end up making purchases in the very store they’re visiting. To transform a potential threat into a sales opportunity, merchants should devote last-minute attention to:

  • In-store/online linkage points. Consider adding further store signage pointing shoppers to holiday-specific content on the eCommerce site, such as gift guides or gift card redemption policies. As well, merchants should use stores to promote social engagement opportunities such as holiday-themed contests as well as email subscriptions — thereby opening the door to repeat engagement with shoppers throughout the season.

  • Priming store associates to interact with mobile-empowered shoppers. The eCommerce site can play an especially vital role in the store experience when shoppers are guided by a brand expert in person. Among the ways sales reps can win business for the brand using online tools:

    • They can save sales via the “endless aisle.” If sought-after items are “out of stock” in physical stores, a heartening 47% of consumers said they would find another way to buy from the same brand, compared with 45% who would take their business elsewhere, Deloitte found. Knowledgeable store associates can lend a crucial assist to the 23% of shoppers who said they would locate the item at another of the same brand’s physical outlets, and to the 24% who would source the item from the same brand’s Web site.

    • They can distinguish themselves — and the brand — as knowledgeable experts. Fully 54% of shoppers said they’re be more likely to make purchases in stores where sales associates are knowledgeable, according to consulting firm Deloitte’s holiday forecast. The ability to quickly access relevant product information and connect shoppers with discounts via any available touchpoint can play a key role in building trust and credibility, especially as 59% of consumers currently believe they’re more knowledgeable than store staff about pricing and product availability.

Data on importance of store associates from Deloitte

What last-minute mobile tactics are you adopting for Black Friday and beyond?

Filed under Connected Commerce, Mobile Commerce, Seasonal Selling Tagged with 2013 Holidays

Last-minute free shipping tweaks for the holidays

November 1, 2013 by Leave a Comment

If there’s one promotion merchants bank on to make their holiday season a success, it’s the free shipping offer. After all, free shipping tops the list of consumers’ favorite promotions, with 91% saying they’re likely to take advantage of free delivery with no threshold and nearly one in two saying they’d make enough purchases to qualify for a free shipping threshold, according to the MarketLive/e-tailing group Consumer Shopping Survey.

But new research suggests that merchants don’t do enough to promote their free shipping offerings. For one, just 26% of the largest online merchants devote significant home page space to free shipping promotions with medium or large-sized banners, according to Forrester Research — and fully one in five merchants don’t flag free shipping with any banner at all. Free shipping promotions are scarcer still on product pages, in the global cart and main shopping cart page, all of which are opportunities to remind shoppers of the opportunity for savings — not to mention on other touchpoints such as social media outposts and mobile sites.

This is an oversight there is still time to rectify with timely messaging that can help merchants stand out from the crowd. Among the tactics to consider:

Message with your competition in mind — starting with Amazon. Amazon.com gifted other merchants early this season with its recent announcement of for shoppers who aren’t members of its Prime subscription service. The 40% jump still only raises the threshold to $35, but the move is a boon for those merchants who can match or better that amount.

Beyond Amazon, merchants should also be aware of what their competitors are offering and what industry standards are for thresholds. Some averages, according to the Forrester report:

Average free shipping thresholds from Forrester

Armed with this knowledge, merchants needn’t rush to change their policies, but rather should fine-tune their messaging. Merchants who can match Amazon or offer a lower threshold than their competitors should play up the price point prominently; those whose threshold is higher than average should tout special service offerings, product guarantees, and easy returns to compensate. MarketLive merchant dELiA*s supplements its $75 free shipping deal with a $25 coupon toward the next purchase — an offer that sweetens the deal for consumers while also encouraging repeat purchases.

Free shipping offer from dEliA*s

Don’t forget mobile users. Too often, merchants focus their free shipping messaging on the eCommerce site and email promotions, without creating corresponding promotions on the mobile site. That’s a mistake, as mobile shoppers are especially apt to be using their devices for research and price comparison. Sixty-four percent of smartphone owners say they plan to use their devices to check for sales and discounts, while more than one in two say they’ll seek out competitive pricing, according to the MarketLive survey.

While mobile sites need to be streamlined for maximum efficiency, merchants should still dedicate screen real estate to free shipping offers throughout the path to purchase, as well as linking to information about any free in-store pickup options available. Piperlime anchors in the global header of its mobile site a promotion of its “free shipping both ways” offer with no threshold, prominently calling attention to its competitive policy.

Free shipping offer for mobile users from Piperlime

Incorporate messaging into triggered emails.  Promotion of free shipping offers shouldn’t be limited to email campaigns sent to existing subscribers. Merchants should also incorporate the offers into triggered emails to alert cart abandoners, potential replenishment candidates and even recipients of immediate post-purchase notifications about the opportunity to earn free shipping. Such incentives could spur re-engagement with the brand, recouping potentially lost sales or earning repeat business. Macy’s promotes its free shipping offer with a $99 threshold in welcome emails to new subscribers, alerting them to the policy with a banner below the header navigation.

Free shipping notice in triggered email from Macy's

How are you positioning and promoting your holiday free shipping offers?

Filed under Acquire, Convert & Retain, Email Marketing, Mobile Commerce, Seasonal Selling Tagged with Shipping

Five ways to use Pinterest this holiday season

October 22, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Pinterest’s meteoric rise to near the top of the social networking ranks and its ability to drive eCommerce sales make it a ripe opportunity for merchants. Now, with the upcoming holiday season potentially driving more users than ever to pin and share their most-wanted products, maximizing the efficacy of a brand’s Pinterest presence should be a top priority.

The holiday-themed pinboards popping up on merchants sites are just one way to capitalize on seasonal Pinterest activity. Across touchpoints, opportunities abound to create compelling Pinterest content, integrate it with relevant offers and encourage pinning and re-pinning. Among them:

Take advantage of rich pins. As we’ve discussed in a previous post, merchants who don’t have an official brand outpost on Pinterest can still leverage the site’s popularity by making their eCommerce site content pin-worthy. Additionally, merchants should use structured markup to ensure their product information can be parsed by Pinterest’s “” feature, which automatically incorporates and displays product information such as price and in-stock status. As further incentive to delve into the code, in August Pinterest introduced an enhancement that on pinned items — essentially providing a price-watching service for favorite products. It’s an invaluable tool for merchants, especially during the holiday season, when consumers will be on the hunt for price breaks.

Pinterest email notification

Use boards to capture a lifestyle experience. Too often, merchants who do have Pinterest profiles for their brands simply use pinboards to replicate eCommerce site categories, rather than taking advantage of the ability to showcase a curated array of items and influences. While doing the latter requires a greater investment in resources, merchants who create truly engaging pinboards are not only more likely to attract potential buyers, but also demonstrate their understanding of customers’ priorities and lifestyle inspirations, boosting the credibility of the brand.

MarketLive merchant Griot’s Garage features a pinboard called “On the Lot,” showcasing interesting cars spotted in the parking lot of the brand’s flagship store. While the board features no product links, it serves to demonstrate that Griot’s is powered by an appreciation for car restoration and unique vehicles — creating affinity with the brand’s clientele.

Griot's Garage pinboard on Pinterest

Use Pinterest content in email. Not only does the Pinterest site itself drive highly motivated shopping traffic to eCommerce sites, but Pinterest-related content can stimulate engagement and clicks in email campaigns as well. Marketing services firm Experian found that Pinterest-related campaigns generate open rates 11% higher and click rates 25% higher than other campaigns. To take advantage of this heightened attention, merchants should consider dedicating an email message to announcing the availability of a Pinterest brand outpost, craft email promotions around top-pinned items and enable pinning directly from message content.

MarketLive merchant Learning Resources promoted the availability of a Pinterest board especially for its UK audience with an email message enumerating five reasons to follow the brand and displaying a variety of boards as examples of the relevant content  the merchant offers.

Learning Resources' Pinterest email promo

Integrate Pinterest content within Facebook. While Pinterest is growing fast, Facebook continues to dwarf all rivals in terms of mass audience — so merchants should promote the availability of Pinterest content on Facebook, where their number of followers is likely to be larger. Additionally, they should consider integrating Pinterest content directly onto a Facebook tab as a means of showcasing the engaging content they’ve created, and encouraging Facebook followers to engage on another platform.

MarketLive merchant H2O Plus positions a link to its Pinterest tab prominently on its Timeline page on Facebook. Clicking the link showcases the brand’s pinboards, including intriguing theme boards such as “H2O Destinations” and “Beach Inspired Weddings.” The alluring content inspires the brand’s 57,000 Facebook followers to investigate further on the Pinterest site itself.

H2O Plus Pinterest-Facebook integration

Encourage wishlists with a sweepstakes contest. “Pin it to win it” contests are by now commonplace, but they’re worth mentioning again because they’re particularly apt now. Not only do such contests encourage shoppers to self-select favorite products, but during the holidays they’re likely to share their pinboards with others as de facto wish lists, upping exposure for the brand. It’s also worthwhile for merchants to revisit their “Pin it to win it” plans to ensure they comply with Pinterest’s about contests and promotions — which include restrictions on requiring entrants to pin specific products.

MarketLive merchant Party City is engaging Halloween shoppers with its “Pin to Win” sweepstakes campaign, in which entrants pinning anything from the Party City Web site or Pinterest page qualify for the random drawing.

Party City Pinterest contest

How are you using Pinterest this holiday season?

Filed under Client Innovations, Connected Commerce, Seasonal Selling, Social Commerce Tagged with Pinterest

Three ways to stretch 27 days into a successful season

October 15, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Among the challenges merchants face in the coming holiday season is the prospect of a shortened timeframe in which to achieve their goals. With Thanksgiving falling late this year,  merchants have a scant 27 days from the traditional start of the season on Black Friday (November 29) until Christmas Day.

Thankfully, consumers are starting their shopping earlier and pushing the last-minute envelope later than ever, giving merchants the opportunity to stretch the season to the fullest extent possible. Despite reports of a backlash against the intrusion of Black Friday commercialism into the Thanksgiving holiday, the fact is that consumers took advantage of opportunities to shop early for deals in 2012, with measurement firm comScore reporting online sales growth of 32% for Thanksgiving Day.  And this year, more than one-third of consumers say they’ll shop for gifts online even earlier — on the day before Thanksgiving, according to the MarketLive/E-Tailing Group Consumer Shopping Survey.

Data from the MarketLive/E-Tailing Group

On the tail end of the season, the survey found that fully 78% of consumers don’t envision finishing their gift buying before December. And more than half of consumers plan to shop online on Free Shipping Day December 18 — just 7 days before Christmas.

To cater to these behaviors, merchants should adopt a broad timeframe for holiday shopping promotions, and consider these ways to extend the excitement of the season:

Start now with early-season suggestions. In the runup to Thanksgiving, merchants should launch their gift guides with a spotlight on products to help shoppers prepare for the busy season ahead — from cookware to holiday party outfits to gift wrap. Not only does such early positioning anchor content in time for search engines to catalog it, but it encourages shoppers to get organized and purchase early. MarketLive merchant World Market has added a twinkling “Holiday” banner to the global navigation, with prime positioning awarded to decor, entertaining, cookware and gift wrap in preparation for the season ahead.

Gift guide example from World Market

Begin Black Friday early. We’ve discussed before the need to balance Black Friday messaging to encourage immediate and subsequent purchasing, but with this year’s shortened season, it seems prudent to tip the scales in favor of more promotions early. In fact, merchants should consider whether to officially launch Black Friday deals — not just preview them — in advance of Thanksgiving, as Dell did in 2012 with this email offer that began the Tuesday before the holiday.

2012 early Black Friday promotion

Start out promoting gift cards prominently — and promote them still more later.  For 60% of shoppers, at least one out of every 10 gifts purchased will be in the form of a gift card, and many consumers plan to reply on gift cards even more heavily, the MarketLive survey found.

Data from MarketLive/The E-Tailing Group

Gift cards make an attractive option for last-minute shoppers: they provide a solution for gift recipients who are hard to buy for, as well as being available for instant email delivery after shipping cutoff dates have passed. So merchants should step up the drumbeat of promotions for gift cards as the season progresses and give them top prominence in the final days before Christmas. Last year, American Eagle dedicated an email promotion solely to gift cards, highlighting the available delivery methods with the tagline “three easy ways to give.” The brand also tied gift card purchasing to charitable giving, donating a portion of every gift card purchase to Big Brothers/Big Sisters.

2012 gift card promotion from AE

How do you plan to make the most of the short holiday season?

Filed under Acquire, Convert & Retain, Client Innovations, Seasonal Selling Tagged with 2013 Holidays

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