Interland, a Web hosting firm for small and medium-sized businesses, Wednesday announced the results of its 2003 Holiday E-commerce Survey. The nationwide study of small businesses with Web sites revealed important trends in e-commerce, most notably the integral role an online presence serves. Of the small businesses surveyed, 78 percent indicated their company benefits from having a Web site. Specifically, 28 percent said they rely heavily on their Web site to make sales goals, while 33 percent said their Web site is their most powerful marketing tool.
Seventeen percent of small businesses surveyed credit their Web site for producing between 50- to 100-percent of their annual sales; 7 percent of the small businesses surveyed claim online sales make up 100 percent of their total sales revenues.
Great Expectations
Survey participants were also asked about their expectations for online sales during the upcoming 2003 holiday shopping season. Of the group, 46 percent said that some portion of their holiday sales would be conducted online.
Of those expecting to see online holiday sales, 22 percent report that their online holiday sales will account for more than 50 percent of their annual 2003 sales, while 11 percent say online holiday sales will account for 26 to 50 percent of total 2003 sales.
When asked about their future use of e-commerce, more than a quarter (26 percent) of those who don't currently sell products online plan to add e-commerce capabilities to their site within the next two years. Five percent plan to add e-commerce to their Web site in time for the 2003 holiday shopping season, which is projected to skyrocket 27 percent (totaling $17.5 billion in sales for Q4) from the 2002 holiday season, according to recent research from Retail Forward. Businesses that currently are not e-commerce-enabled are going to find it difficult to compete with those businesses that are seasoned e-tailers.
If you are like many small businesses, you're banking on 2003 online holiday sales to have a positive impact on your bottom line, what can you do to ensure you remain as competitive as possible to ensure you get a fair share of that giant e-commerce pie? For starters, you can optimize your Web sites well in advance of the rapidly approaching holiday season (which officially begins in nine weeks).
5 Tips to Maximize Your Holiday Revenues
Convenience is key. Make it easy for your customer to shop where and when they want to shop and buy. If you're driving them to your Web site to purchase from your catalog, do you have a quick-shop functionality?
Use an e-mail promotional strategy. Free express shipping has proven to be a powerful motivator for December purchasing. And while were on the topic, make sure your e-mail offers are relevant. Surveys have shown that irrelevance could turn a wanted e-mail into spam.
Click-and-mortar? Then add retail store return options. Return policies are a significant impediment to online order completion. You've got multiple ways to get paid make sure your customers can return items through multiple channels, as well.
Gift certificates are key gifting strategy. Too many stores make their gift certificate or gift card program an afterthought, and miss opportunities to build shopper loyalty among gift givers and recipients. Increasing sales of gift certificates should be a cornerstone of a retailer's gifting strategy, since with a gift card you touch two shoppers, not just one.
Implement escalation procedures. People as well as technology should have a backup, should any problems occur. Retailers should focus on making backup plans, especially if they find volume to be too much to handle. One consideration is to outsource CRM to call centers and or hosting companies, which can help online retailers quickly add capacity to handle overflow.
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