Small Business Internet Marketing Blog

According to the e-tailing group’s 11th Annual Mystery Shopping Survey, leading merchants are optimizing merchandising to get sales. Merchants limited-time-only promotions jumped to 42% penetration in 2008 from 18% in 2007. Gift with Purchase showed a measurable decrease perhaps as it is less economical than the other tactics benchmarked. Online Outlets Clearance saw a 14 percent increase in penetration year-over-year, with 86 percent of merchants now deploying this tactic.

Free shipping continues to be a promotional standard offered by more merchants in diverse manners that complement their business models including an increase in conditional free shipping to a store (26% in 2008 vs. 15% in 2007).

Lauren Freedman, President of the e-tailing group, said “… we observed merchants pulling out all the stops to rethink promotions, refine search, retool content/information, and reinvent community.”

Refining search with the goal of getting shoppers to the right product is a priority, as 100% of the sites surveyed have the feature. Beyond this:

·         85% of merchants are implementing an in-depth refined search 

·         63% are implementing guided navigation

·         77% providing landing page sorts

Retooling content augments category, product, and multi-channel efforts via rich and robust enhancements, says the report. Detailed product information coupled with rich media gives consumers the confidence to buy. Video adds a dimension, in addition to creative treatment with imagery coupled with category-specific capabilities.

Customer education is paramount and here too category-centric content elevates the shopping experience while interactive tools ensure customers make the right choice. Brands are more apt to play a role in this arena by availing merchants of rich media and in-depth information. Additionally, manufacturer attempts to inspire shoppers are evolving online via direct-to-consumer initiatives.

Share is a new metric in the e-tailing group 11th Annual Merchant Survey, and merchants test a variety of strategies and methodologies throughout their sites. Look for increased usage as merchants understand the viral power of cost-effective community initiatives. Ratings and reviews are also elevated as user-generated content plays a greater role for consumers with 58% of the EG100 incorporating this tactic into their shopping experience and 24% selling by top-rated products.

Freedman summarizes, saying “…  time-savings tools to custom control multi-tactical initiatives go a long way toward brand building… ultimately customer involvement and interactivity should reinforce differentiation and result in sales.”

For additional information about the e-tailing group and the more complete report, please visit here.

Tags: Internet Marketing

This entry was posted on Friday, February 13th, 2009 at 2:53 pm and is filed under General Website Best practices. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.