The Holiday Retail Darling: Online shopping

Oh, glorious online shopping! How much do we love thee? Well, we love thee to the tune of a 17.7% increase in online sales in the month of December 2009. Growing comfort with online shopping, less than stellar sales and merchandise at the store level, and a winter storm that crippled the East Coast sent shoppers online in record numbers. Furthermore, online retailers are being credited for using social media in a relevant fashion to lure online shoppers into becoming online purchasers. Oh yeah, and don't forget that FREE shipping!

Speaking of comfort, that's one of the many reasons consumers told us they were going online instead of going to the mall this past holiday season. Here are the top reasons for holiday shopping online:

• Comfort of shopping from home (some, admittedly in their PJs!)
• Bigger selection of merchandise
• User friendly website experience
• Free shipping
• Ease of comparison shopping
• Saves time
• Better sales
• Saves "other" money

Saves "other" money? Yep. Folks told us that they incurred additional costs when they go to stores instead of shopping online. Gas, food and beverages, and unnecessary purchases bought out of temptation rather than true need were at the top of the list of these "other" costs. According to one shopper it's as easy as this:

"I can just click on the sale section instead of having to weave my way through the stores, and perhaps be tempted to buy other items I don't need."

It's clear that the online holiday shopping season was a success, but did you know that satisfaction levels of the online shopping experience improved as well? Not only are folks gaining comfort shopping online, but it looks like the customer service experience is gaining traction as well.

No surprise that Amazon was the big winner in customer satisfaction with a whopping 87% saying they had a good experience with the online retailer. As the good research types at ForeSeeResults pointed out positive customer satisfaction impacts future purchase intent, customer loyalty, market share, and brand image of the retailer. Positive word-of-mouth recommendations are more likely to follow.

To download a free report, see ForeSee Results Holiday E-Retail Satisfaction 2009.

[photo credit: Danilo Rizzuti / FreeDigitalPhotos.net]

Holiday 2009 Retail Review: Don't forget, '08 was a disaster!

Sales numbers for major retailers this past holiday season were decent, but let's not forget that we're comparing with last year's disaster of a retail holiday season. Our excitement over a successful holiday season is a bit tempered with this in mind.

On the consumer level -- folks said they didn't notice as many good sales as they had in years past, but thought that the rationale behind that was the merchandise wasn't "over-purchased" by the stores' buyers. In addition, consumers went online instead of brick and mortar. Here's what a couple of savvy consumers told us,

 

"I thought stuff would be marked down more than it was -- I guess retailers didn't over-order as much as they did last year." Julia, Chicago.

"It seemed a little less crazy than usual. I always go out shopping early on Black Friday and I noticed the lines weren't as long. The sales didn't seem as motivating...It seemed that the things I wanted didn't necessitate a trip to a retail store. Everything I needed could be bought online." Anne, Indianapolis.

Retailer winners included TJX (+14 vs. flat YA, year ago), Kmart (+5.3 vs. -1.1 YA) Gap Inc., which includes Old Navy (+2 vs. -14 YA) and to a lesser degree of success Target (+1.8 vs. -4.1 YA), and Macy's (+1 vs. -4 YA). Walmart no longer reports monthly sales -- results for fourth quarter are expected later this year, but early predictions suggest they may be flat. In December '08, Walmart reported a +1.7 increase.


It was an interesting surprise to see high end retailers like Neiman Marcus (+4.5 vs. -27.5 YA), Nordstrom (+7.4 vs. -10.6 YA) and Saks (+9.9 vs. -19.8 YA) recover nicely this past season. Will these retailers see a solid 2010 as well? Stay tuned. They may be headed that way.


On the sad side of retail: Abercrombie & Fitch was a wee-bit less dismal (-13 vs. -25.5 YA) than sister stores Abercrombie (-19 vs. -24 YA) and Hollister (-25 vs. -24 YA). Hot Topic was not a hot topic with a staggering decline (-10.9 vs. +4.3 YA) and other losers included Sears (-4.3 vs. -12.8 YA), Banana Republic (-3 vs. -15 YA) and JCPenney (-3.8 vs. -8.1 YA). At the very least, the latter three did less bad than last year.

Please note: All numbers are same store sales compared with a year ago (YA). 

Our friend Anne brings up a really good point about online shopping this past season -- online retailers did extraordinarily well, and consumers were quite happy with the experience. Stay tuned for our next posting on the holiday retail season online. We'll explore the reasons folks flocked to the internet this past season.



[photo credit: Suat Eman / FreeDigitalPhotos.net]