Coremetrics eCommerce Report: Holy Holiday eSales!

January 31st, 2008 by Carolyn Gardner

It’s always interesting to see new trend reports in the e-commerce space. Even more interesting is understanding why these trends are happening. You could talk to ten different people and get ten different perspectives. I don’t have ten people with me right now, so I hope you’re cool reading my opinion on some new data from a Jan 22 news release courtesy of our friends at Coremetrics. This data relates to an eCommerce Report that compares 2007 holiday sales to 2006 holiday sales.

All in all, while online sales went up in just about every category, the big winners were department stores, intimate apparel and health & beauty sites. But now — along with my two cents on why it’s happening — here is some Coremetrics’ specific findings:

Department Store eCommerce sites saw the highest growth this holiday season vs. last with a 35 percent increase in sales.

When you sell just about everything – which most department stores do – it’s easy to cast your visitor net very wide. And for the holiday shopper, there’s nothing like minimizing the hassle by going to the one-stop shop. Through their analytics reports, ese sites know about all the drop-off points. That said, I am sure they are leveraging these findings to their fullest. For example, during the holidays, shoppers are often stumped at what to buy for certain people on their list. So if these dept stores notice someone has been on their site for close to the typical visitor’s drop-off time, isn’t this an ideal time to promote “gift cards? Ah yes, gift cards. I’m a big fan of them. I especially love that dept stores like Target send the gift card via email which means as a shopper, we can be very last minute.

Intimate Apparel and Health & Beauty sites saw strong gains in online sales with a 27 and 26 percent interest in sales, respectively.

I smiled when I saw this one. I think the initial traffic is all about those caring men who simply want to browse sites looking for the best intimate apparel for their adoring wives, girlfriends, etc. Ya right. But the thing is, these casual “browsers” are converting into buyers! I know La Senza is a master of the online selling game. And kudos to them. They have consistency all round – sizing, quality, shipping, service, after sales. It’s all good and it makes for an easy sell. Once you buy something online, they keep you in their radar using irresistible emails with just the right offers at just the right time. Coincidence? I don’t think so. Strategic? You better believe it.

As for health & beauty, again it’s a classic gift thing. You can’t go wrong buying any of this stuff online. Who doesn’t love getting a new bottle of their favorite lotion or potion? And again, the bundling upsell potentials are endless in terms of getting people to increase their avg cart spends. “Spend $40 and get this miracle cream for free!” On top of all this, you’ve got a category that loves to spend money on their digital marketing efforts…clearly it works.

Home sites rebounded from a slow start during the start of the 2007 online shopping season (6 percent increase in sales) to finish with 13 percent year-over-year sales growth.
Sports Apparel sites made strong gains in the average order value of online checkouts raising that number by 14 percent vs. last year’s figure.
Office Supply/Electronics sites along with general Apparel sites saw more modest gains with a 10 percent increase in sales.

These last three trends are all worth noting. I suspect the home site lag at the start of the season is unrelated to anything specific. Perhaps their initial strategy was stinking so they had to switch gears part way through the season? Who really knows?

As for sports apparel, if the average order value of online checkouts went up by 14%, I’m guessing they’re getting smarter with the upsell/cross-sell piece. Plus like our friends in health & beauty, they’re likely using their analytics to see the avg cart size and then cross-sell promotions that encourage shoppers to spend more than that avg amt so they qualify for free shipping or whatever other incentive works.

As for office supply/electronics sites, they just keep going up! And why wouldn’t they? They’ve had it figured out for a long time now…

Posted in Carolyn Gardner, Email marketing, Personalization, Web Analytics, eCommerce |