Arie Shpanya says, “Retailers often go to great lengths to ensure the consumer’s path to purchase on their site is laid with gold bricks and pleasant surprises. Unfortunately, many allocate too many resources to the path and a meager amount to the destination. The destination, in this case, is the product search page, which contains relevant items and their prices. The price of an item can entice a shopper like the Emerald City or turn them away faster than a gang of flying monkeys“. Four reasons to get your pricing strategy in order before Christmas ‘Econsultancy’... [...]

Matthew Whitehead says, “It’s nearly ‘that time’ of year again. So what are the key things to consider if you’re still putting the final touches to your digital marketing strategy for the holiday shopping season? The pace of change in digital marketing means there are always new trends and opportunities to consider as retailers think through their plans to maximise sales at the busiest time of the year. So here are five areas to consider this holiday season: 1. Look again at how you approach Facebook ads Facebook knows that retail advertisers come to it to drive business goals, such... [...]

Georges Berzgal says, “It’s warm outside and Christmas is far from most people’s minds at the moment. But for commerce marketers, it’s a different story.  Retailers are already thinking about how they can captivate consumers and drive revenue this year. With IMRG reporting that UK shoppers spent £21.6bn in the eight weeks running up to Christmas in 2014, it’s no surprise to see why it’s a priority now. One of the most effective marketing tactics to turn Christmas shoppers into buyers is email because it enables brands to send a very focused, personalised message“. 10 steps... [...]

Matthew Kates says, “Click and collect felt inescapable this December. Just on my half hour walk to work I would see multiple ads for eBay’s partnership with Argos, John Lewis and Tesco promoting their click and collect services on bus stops and in shop windows. One piece of research published in October made the bold prediction that 95% of online shoppers will use click and collect over Christmas 2014, more than double the percentage who used it in 2013. Although the Postcode Anywhere survey of 2,400 online shoppers seemed rather optimistic, it’s a customer service trend that’s definitely... [...]

Christopher Ratcliff says, “This was going to be a rigorous test of another specific UK fashion retailer’s paid search strategy, through to landing page and eventually checkout. Essentially a complete ecommerce journey from the customer’s point of view. But then I was bombarded with LED festooned Christmas tree jumpers, wool sweaters featuring Santa with a fake wobbly Santa belly and pullovers with Rudolph’s glowing red nose and things went dramatically off-course. There is a very strong chance that at some point over the next couple of weeks you’ll be encouraged to wear something festive,... [...]

Christopher Ratcliff says, “In which we take a selection of the most popular gifts this Christmas and see how some of the top UK retailers’ site search handles them. When I begin typing ‘Frozen Snow Glow Elsa’ into Amazon’s search box, will the item immediately appear at the top of the predictive text suggestions? When I search for ‘Nerf’ at John Lewis will the first product listing be its most popular model ‘The Demolisher’. Will Toys R Us direct me to the correct ‘Transformers Grimlock’ toy? First though, let’s take a look at the UK’s top 12 toys for Christmas 2014,... [...]

Matthew Whitehead says, “Paid search is a key element of marketing campaigns during the festive shopping season. What should advertisers be focusing on to succeed this year? Here are six key tips to inform your search advertising campaigns this festive season: 1. Analyse past performance and forecast for the future Reference historical data when planning your campaigns, but don’t simply replicate the same tactics from the previous year. Where were your peaks in 2013 – and how does the changing calendar impact them? In 2014, there will only be 26 days between Black Friday and Christmas itself... [...]

Matthew Whitehead says, “Paid search is a key element of marketing campaigns during the festive shopping season. What should advertisers be focusing on to succeed this year? Here are six key tips to inform your search advertising campaigns this festive season: 1. Analyse past performance and forecast for the future Reference historical data when planning your campaigns, but don’t simply replicate the same tactics from the previous year. Where were your peaks in 2013 – and how does the changing calendar impact them? In 2014, there will only be 26 days between Black Friday and Christmas itself... [...]

Christopher Ratcliff says, “This is a huge increase from the 45% of online users using click and collect last Christmas. Obviously the main benefit of click and collect is the ability to pick up purchases when and where the customer chooses. You don’t have to wait in your house all day for a package, or take a trip down to the sorting office before it closes on a Saturday morning if you’ve missed it. The other benefit is that theoretically click and collect should always be free to the customer. Almost 80% of the online shoppers surveyed said they expect click and collect to be offered for... [...]

The latest ‘Econsultancy’ blog post is titled “Strong mobile performance over Christmas and New Year: stats”. Matt Swan says, “With the staggering mobile growth that had been witnessed throughout 2013, it was widely predicted that consumers would turn to their mobile devices over the Christmas period. John Lewis made a bold prediction pre-Christmas that it would see its share of mobile traffic exceed desktop for the first time on Christmas Day and they subsequently reported that these expectations were exceeded, with two thirds of traffic originating from a mobile... [...]